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How to Tell the Story 
of Life 



BY 



PROF. T. W. SHANNON, A.M. 

Author of "Perfect Manhood," "Perfect Womanhood," "Perfect 

Boyhood," "Perfect Girlhood," "Guide to Sex Instruction," 

"Heredity Explained," "Self Knowledge," Etc. 



Price, paper, 20 cents; cloth, 40 cents 



THE S. A. MULLIKIN COMPANY 

Official Publishers 

Marietta, O. 



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Copyrighted, 1913, By 
The S. A. Mullikin Company. 



©CIA358 797 



Affectionately Dedicated 

To 

The boys and girls of to-day, 

The hope of the tomorrows, 

Whose childhood innocency and purity 

We hope may in the future 

Bloom into all the purity and glory 

Of Ideal Manhood and Womanhood. 



PUBLISHERS' NOTE. 

For many years the author was a student and teacher 
of biology. His practical knowledge of plant, animal 
and human life, not only helped him in telling th?se 
stories of life to his own children, but it has helped 
him in telling these stories to more than one thousand 
audiences of parents and teachers, showing them how 
to tell these stories to their children and to their 
pupils. Perhaps no living person is better acquainted 
with the kind of book that parents need, or better 
qualified to write such a book, than is the author of 
this volume. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 

In every home where there is a normal child, the 
question, ''Where do babies come from?" will be asked 
of papa and mama. An angel could not ask this 
question more naturally, sincerely and sweetly. The 
answer received by the child will have much to do with 
his future character. Parents should be well prepared 
and welcome this question as a most precious oppor- 
tunity for giving the child this most valuable informa- 
tion. 

The intellectual and moral awakening, on personal 
and social purity, has created a very large demand for 
a small and cheap book that presents in very simple 
language and in story form the information that 
parents should give in reply to the above question. 
This little volume is sent forth with the sincere desire 
and prayer that it may supply this demand, prove help- 
ful to many thousands of parents and be a life-long 
blessing to their children. 

Yours for the Uplift of Humanity, 
Marietta, Ohio, July 1, 1913. T. W. Shannon. 



How to Tell the Story of Life 



CHAPTER I. 
The Right of a Child to a Knowledge of Sex. 

A child's right to sex knowledge. — What gives to a 
child the right to a knowledge of any kind? Nature 
and nature's God give to every child an inalienable 
right to acquire knowledge. Every normal child comes 
into this world with a capacity for knowledge. xA.s the 
child grows and his mind develops there is a growing 
demand for knowledge. The child's safety, health, 
happiness, success, attainments, here and hereafter, 
depend upon his receiving true knowledge in the right 
way. A knowledge of sex is fully as necessary to 
these ends as knowing how to read, write and count, 
or to know language, history, mathematics, geography, 
science and mechanics. There is an earlier conscious 
desire and moral demand for a knowledge of sex than 
for knowledge along many of the lines mentioned. 

A child early seeks this knowledge. — At the ages of 

four, five and six the child will begin to ask such 

questions as, Where does the rain come from ? Where 

does the snow come from ? Where do the clouds come 

from? When kitties, pigs, puppies, calves or colts are 

1 



8 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

born, the child very naturally asks about their origin. 
A child will just as surely ask, "Mama, where was I 
before I was born? How did I get into this world?" 
etc. An angel could not be more 'sincere or ask a 
purer question. This is no evidence of the child's 
depravity, but an evidence of the child's mental 
awakening and demand for knowledge that it is pre- 
pared to receive. For a child not to ask about his 
origin until he is eight or ten means one of two things : 
either he has heard about his birth and is keeping this 
information from his parents, or he is not developing 
mentally as rapidly as he should. Investigation will 
usually reveal the first to be the explanation. When 
a child has once become interested about his origin, he 
will never rest satisfied until he has received a proper 
explanation. 

Sex impulse controlled by reason and will. — The 
lower animals are governed by instinct; man is 
governed by reason. The lower animals instinctively 
keep out of the fire, avoid poisons and places of clanger. 
But nature will no more teach a child not to violate the 
laws of sex, than nature will teach an infant not to 
crawl into the fire, a pool of water, over a precipice, or 
not to eat glass or poison. The sexual impulse among 
the lower animals is guided and controlled by instinct. 
In man this impulse is to be guided by reason and 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 9 

controlled by the will. The attitude of reason and will 
toward the sex impulse will be almost wholly 
determined by the instruction given. If this education 
is timely and wisely imparted, scientific and moral, the 
virtue of the individual will, in nearly all cases, be 
safeguarded. If the child's education in this matter 
has been wholly neglected, he will find his reason and 
will weak and powerless in the presence of temptation. 
If he has received his information alone from impure 
sources, he will most likely be immoral as a matter of 
choice. 

Conscience, a child of education. — Why does the 
small boy's conscience condemn him when he steals, 
lies and is disobedient, but does not when he practices 
the secret vice ? The only answer to the question is, he 
was normally taught by the school, church and home 
regarding the wrong of stealing, lying and dis- 
obedience, but received little or no instruction regard- 
ing self pollution. Why do young men hang their 
heads in shame when guilty of lying, stealing, drunken- 
ness and murder, but boast of their conquests over 
female virtue? The simple and only reason is the 
school, church and home gave them normal instruction 
regarding the first crimes but did not regarding the 
last. 



10 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

Education of the past inconsistent. — The children are 
taught the correct names and functions of every organ 
of the body, as if health, happiness, success, character 
and destiny depended upon this knowledge being 
correctly given, until they come to the sacred organs 
and function of human reproduction. Here books and 
teachers have been as silent as death, as if health, 
happiness, success, character and destiny had no rela- 
tion to a true knowledge of sex. If we would safeguard 
the health, happiness and character of the children of 
to-day, who are to be the youths of tomorrow and the 
men and the women of the succeeding day, we must 
give our children a correct knowledge of themselves. 

Physical reasons for sex education. — In a health 
pamphlet recently circulated by a state board of health 
we find a statement claiming that if all men and women 
understood and kept the laws of health there would be 
a need for only about one doctor in ten that we have 
to-day. In a small book for college young men by that 
prince of doctors, Prince A. Morrow, he states that 
fully one-half of all the physical ailments common to 
young men from fifteen to twenty-five years of age 
is due to a violation of sex. No other line of education 
is so essential to a child's health and physical develop- 
ment as this. If the child is told the truth about his 
birth, he will come freely and frankly to his parents 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 11 

for additional information as he grows older. The 
child will welcome and appreciate information and 
advice voluntarily given. 

Mental reasons for sex education. — Dr. Pique, in his 
investigations of the asylums of one nation, found that 
eighty-two per cent, of insanities among the females 
and seventy-eight per cent, among the males involved 
their sexual mechanism, and that early sex instruction 
would have wholly prevented much of this insanity 
and would have postponed the mental break in many 
other cases until later in life. The violations of the 
laws of sex is no doubt the largest source of mental 
degeneracy. This is the mental reason why children 
have a right to a knowledge of sex. 

As a result of not understanding the laws of sex 
nature many boys and young men become mentally 
morbid over an imaginary sexual trouble. This mental 
worry is injurious to health, interferes with their 
studies or business and often leads to real sexual 
troubles. Boys should be free from worry and should 
be cheerful, happy and full of hope and purpose. 

Moral reasons for sex education. — More men are kept 
from Christ and more men fail in living the Christian 
life, because of their sex problems,, than because of all 
other problems combined. Here are the moral and 
religious reasons why children should be properly 
instructed in matters pertaining to sex. 



CHAPTER II. 
The Old Way and The Results. 

Sex, in the near past, tabooed. — In the past, Anglo- 
Saxon prudery and mock modesty made sex a tabooed 
subject between parents and children, teachers and 
pupils and the minister and his congregation. Few of 
these leaders of the people, in the past, thought of sex 
knowledge as being pure, vital or sacred, but a knowl- 
edge of sex was regarded as something essentially 
impure, unimportant and sinful. With these convic- 
tions, few people felt that it would be wise, or that 
they were under any moral obligation to give sex 
instruction to children, youths or matured people. 

Evasions and falsehoods, why? — So deeply intrenched 

was this idea in the minds of parents, that whenever 

they were asked by their child, "How did I get into 

this world?" "Where was I before I was born?" or 

"Where do babies come from?" they evaded the 

question by resorting to ridiculing, shaming, scolding, 

chastising the child,, or the child was told some kind of 

falsehood; such as, "The angels brought you," "a 

big bird brought you," "an old woman brought you," 

"the doctor brought you in his satchel," "you were 
12 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 13 

found in a sink hole," "in a brush pile," "in a big bird's 
nest," or "in the cabbage patch." No wonder we find 
so many cabbage-headed children. 

A personal experience.— When only a small boy, 
some four or five years old, the author was called from 
his bed quite early one spring morning and was 
informed that the fine mare had "found" a colt. With 
boyish haste, excitement and enthusiasm he was soon 
viewing the prettiest and finest colt he had ever seen. 
For a very brief time he looked at the playful colt, first 
with admiration, then with wonder and finally his 
boyish curiosity asserted itself. Very naturally he 
enquired, "Where did the old mare find the colt?" 
He had been given to understand for several days that 
the mare had been placed in the orchard with a view 
to her "finding" a colt. He had put to his parents a 
very direct question. It had to be disposed of then and 
there. Three methods were available — evasion, a 
falsehood or the truth. It was a psychological moment; 
a golden opportunity. But, alas ! they did not see it in 
the light of the "new way," telling the truth. There 
was a perpetual brush pile in one quarter of the orchard 
that received the annual trimmings from all the trees. 
Hens and turkey hens found their nests there. The 
sows found their pigs there. The cows found their 
calves there. The big snakes were found there. The 



14 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

servants had seen ghosts there. He was told that the 
mare found her colt in that brush pile. He was 
prepared to believe it. For six months no brush pile 
escaped being searched by his eager eyes. 

A Canadian's experience. — Years ago, while travel- 
ing on a fast Canadian Pacific train across those 
"magnificent distances," so characteristic of the then 
unsettled Canadian west, in conversation with the con- 
ductor, the author asked, "Did you ever have one of 
your children to say, 'Papa how did I get into this 
world?' " "O, yes; I have had that experience several 
times in my family of seven children," he replied. 
"Did you find any embarrassment or difficulty in 
answering your children?" he was asked. "No, that 
was easily done," was his answer. Thinking that he 
might have some original and helpful method of 
solving this perplexing problem, the author requested 
the conductor to relate how he had told the last child. 
His reply was, "Only a few weeks ago my youngest 
child was sitting in my lap. She gave me a searching 
look and said, 'Papa, how did I get into this world?' 
At the time, we were sitting in front of the window. 
Recalling the condition of the weather at the time of 
her birth an answer was suggested to me. My reply 
was, 'Darling, the day you came to our home, papa was 
standing here at the window watching it rain and 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 15 

wishing that God might send us a little girl. It was 
not long until he saw you falling from the cloud and 
ran out and caught you and brought you to your 
mama.' " It is heathenish to tell a child such lies. 

A southern mother's experience. — At the close of a 
lecture in a southern town, on "How to Tell the Story - 
of Life to a Child," a mother of culture, influence and 
wealth, said to the author, "When my boy was five 
years old he asked me about his origin. Remembering 
that he was born about half-past three one after- 
noon, about the time the Cotton Belt train passes 
through our town, I said, 'Why, son, God sent you 
into this town on the Cotton Belt train one afternoon. 
Our doctor was at the depot and saw you. Knowing 
that we wanted a boy and noticing that you were a 
fine fellow, he persuaded the conductor to give you to 
him. He put you in his satchel and brought you to 
our home.' Now," said the mother, "my boy is 
nine years old and he has never referred to that matter 
since. Do you suppose that he has been told by the 
servants and school mates?" She was urged to take 
her boy into her confidence, talk to him about these 
matters and get him to tell her all that he had learned 
in the wrong way and from whom. She reported the 
next day that she found that his little mind had been 
polluted with obscene words and stories for three years. 



16 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

Few helps for parents. — The parents of the past loved 
their children as devotedly as the parents of the 
present ; they were as deeply concerned in safeguarding 
their children's virtue as are the parents of to-day. 
In the past, parents had no opportunity to hear a 
course of instructive and helpful lectures on how to 
handle the sex problems cf childhood and there were 
no simple and practical books from which they could 
get the help they needed. One would be a very poor 
teacher of mathematics if all he knew about the 
subject had been obtained from ignorant playmates 
and servants. Just so, we are to remember that the 
parents of the past, and indeed nearly all of to-day, 
received only half truths about sex from the ignorant 
and vicious elements of society. Hence, the majority 
of parents have been and are still unprepared to handle, 
intelligently and effectively, the sex problems in their 
homes. 

Ignorance essential to innocence. — Again, we are to 
remember that our parents were trained to think of the 
organs of reproduction and their functions as being 
our shame and humiliation and that all reference to 
sex was immodest, if not sinful. They believed that 
innocence was inseparable from sex ignorance. They 
considered it their moral and religious duty to keep 
their children ignorant of their origin as long as 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 17 

possible, and the girls were to be kept ignorant until 
after marriage, if at all possible. They did not believe 
it possible to tell, even a ten or twelve year old child, 
the truth about his birth, without great moral injury. 
They believed it to be their most sacred duty to keep 
their' children ignorant about these facts. Very 
naturally they would shame, ridicule, scold, punish or 
tell the child a falsehood in reply to the question, "how 
did I get into this world?" They would do this as 
religiously as they would go to church on Sunday. 

Bad environment, not truth, injures. — Conscientious 
parents remember that their minds were poisoned for 
years after they were told of their birth by playmates 
and servants. The conclusion, "if we tell our chil- 
dren these things, it will have the same dire conse- 
quences on them that it had on us," is very natural. 
These parents fail to see the difference between the 
effects of truth and the effects of the environment of 
truth. To illustrate : truth is very much like gold, unaf- 
fected in quality by its environment. Here are three 
nuggets of gold. One is in a slop bucket, the second is 
in a tar bucket and the third is in a flowing stream of 
clear water. Suppose you lift these nuggets from their 
environments. In the first instance your hand is soiled 
and must be washed. In the second case you have tar 
on your hand. It will require hot water, soap and 



18 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

turpentine to remove it, and still some will remain to 
be worn off. In the third instance, where you lift the 
gold from the stream, your hand is made all the cleaner 
by coming in contact with the environment of the gold. 
But this nugget of gold was no purer in quality than 
the other nuggets. In the other instances it was the 
environment that soiled your hand, not the gold. Just 
so, you may find some truth in a dime novel that is as 
pure as similar truth found in the Bible, but you found 
it in a literary slop bucket. You may find some truth 
in one of Bob Ingersoll's books that is as pure as 
similar truth found in the Bible, but you should not 
have gone to such a literary tar bucket for it. In 
either event, time, personal effort and divine help will 
be required for the moral effects to be effaced. If you 
get truth from the lips of a wise teacher, a noble father, 
a pure mother or a good book, your mind and life will 
be all the purer by coming in contact with such purify- 
ing environment. It is not the truth that the child 
receives that does the harm, it is the environment of 
half truths that poisons the minds of the youth. If a 
little five year old child could understand, in all of the 
details, the conception, gestation and birth of a child, 
and this information was given by a noble father or 
pure mother, it could do the child no harm. If that 
statement is not true, then God has arranged a repro- 
ductive scheme, the knowledge of which is sinful and 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 19 

leads to sexual sinning. In this event God would 
be personally responsible for all the sins of this nature. 

Results of the old method. — It is not our purpose to 
question the love or motives of the parents of the past 
or present, who hold to the policy of ignorance as a 
safeguard to virtue. We wish now to study the results 
of this old method. 

Under the old policy, when a bright, innocent child 
eagerly enquired how he got into this world, and met 
with ridicule, shame, and the order to "clear out," or 
a falsehood, what were the effects on the child ? Could 
the child reason out why he should be thus treated? 
Did he feel that his question had been satisfactorily 
answered ? If he had sinned, could he see in what way ? 
Was he made wiser by the answer to his question? 
Did it lead him to a true, pure and sacred regard for 
sex? Did it lead to greater love for and confidence 
in his parents? We shall see. 

How children find out. — It was not many days after 
this when a servant or a playmate discovered the 
unsatisfied interest of the child and said, "I know 
something you don't know. You would like to know 
it too. I will tell you, if you will promise not to tell 
your papa and mama. It is how babies get into this 
world." Such is the child's absorbing interest in the 
origin of life, that, however obedient he may be, he 



20 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

will agree not to tell his parents. Now the child 
eagerly listens to the story of life told in half-truths, 
couched in smutty language. What are some of the 
results of getting this information in that way? (1) 
He discovers that his parents evaded his question or 
told him a falsehood. He was not capable of reasoning 
why his parents dealt with his question as they did. 
He now has the two stories of life before him. The 
one just received is the most reasonable. He con- 
cludes, "this is the truth, what my parents told me was 
a falsehood." (2) To the extent that the child com- 
prehends the falsehood of the parents does he lose con- 
fidence in them in all matters pertaining to sex. (3) 
He has learned to keep such information a secret from 
his parents. (4) He cannot contemplate the initial 
of his own life and his parents' relation thereto as 
being sacred. The early impressions on the mind of a 
child are not easily removed. Ugly words, impure 
pictures and smutty stories, in all their vile suggestive- 
ness, ofttimes remain through much or all of life. (5) 
He has been taught a vulgar and untrue sex vocabulary. 
(6) The sexual organs and their functions are sources 
of continuous impure thought and occasional jest. 

False training degrading. — God never planned that 
his children should entertain such degraded and 
demoralizing views of these divinely created organs 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 21 

and their sacred functions. It is impossible to estimate 
the evil influence of this false training. Just to the 
extent that one fails to see that God is the author of 
sex, that sex is sacred and pure, his glory and not his 
shame, to that extent has a false training degraded 
him. Yet there are those who estimate their culture, 
refinement and piety by the degree of conscious shame 
and condemnation they experience when they think 
or speak of any phase of sex. 

How confidence is lost. — Does a child lose confidence 
in his parents when he discovers that they have told 
him a falsehood about his origin? The author 
receives hundreds of letters, and interviews thousands 
of young men annually regarding their sex problems. 
Not one in a hundred of these young men has received 
the truth about his origin or a word of warning con- 
cerning the secret sin. With absolute innocence and 
confidence those young men went to their parents in 
their childhood and enquired of their origin. Treated 
as described, they went to evil minded ones for informa- 
tion and were led into vice. To-day there is not one 
boy in fifty who, while in his teens, goes freely to his 
parents for such information as is necessary for him to 
have, if he is to keep his life pure and chaste. There 
is not one girl in twenty-five who, in her teens, goes 
freely to her mother for such information as her 



22 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

developing womanhood requires. This is not as it 
should be. It is not natural. 

Girls fall because they are ignorant. — The author, in 
company with reliable and responsible men, such as 
detectives, has visited the "red light" districts of many 
large cities, looked into the faces of many thousand 
erring girls, ranging in age from twelve to twenty-five, 
a majority of whom had fallen before they were 
sixteen. Many of these girls were asked, "Did your 
mothers give you such information about your origin, 
your sexual nature and your danger in associating with 
young men as a girl should have had?" Not one in a 
thousand could say, "Yes, my mother told me." 

An incident. — Nine out of ten girls who are fallen, 
fell not because of a vicious choice to do wrong, but 
because of ignorance. A prominent physician, a 
teacher in the medical department of one of our largest 
state universities, only a few days ago, told the author 
an experience he had had only a few days before. A 
mother came to him with her ailing daughter of sixteen 
summers. The diagnosis disclosed that she was a 
prospective mother. She was perfectly surprised. 
She, with little hesitancy, admitted relations with her 
friend, but claimed that he had told her that that was 
not the way children were brought into this world. 
She did not know the name, the nature or the results 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 23 

of the act that involved the happiness, character and 
destiny of three souls — hers, his and their offspring. 
No tongue can tell, no rhetoric can describe and no 
imagination can depict the sad consequences of this 
one mother's neglect. Whenever a child has grown up 
to maturity under this policy of silence and remained 
pure, it was not because of ignorance, but due to some 
other cause. 

Another incident. — In a western town the author was 
asked to give the high school boys a special lecture. 
After this lecture was over, while passing through the 
hall, he was approached by the lady principal, with a 
request coming from the young ladies of the high 
school, asking for a special lecture adapted to their 
age and sex. The request being granted, she added, 
"Several of the girls said, 'O, we wish he was a lady 
lecturer! There are so many questions we should 
like to ask, but we would hesitate to ask a gentleman 
lecturer.' I said, 'Girls, why don't you ask your 
mamas those things?' With the most perfect sur- 
prise, they replied, 'Why, we would not think of asking 
mama such questions.' " This loss of confidence in 
their mothers started when they first asked about their 
origin. Can a system of moral training be right when 
it produces such results? 



24 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

The harvest.— In round numbers 2,000,000 children 
are born into this Christian nation annually. One- 
fourth of this number die before they are seven years 
old. Annually one and one-half million children ask 
the question of their parents, "How did I get into this 
world?" Not one in twenty gets a kind, truthful, and 
intelligent answer. Nineteen out of twenty are told a 
falsehood or they are ridiculed and ordered to "clear 
out," "shame on you," "I am disgusted with you," 
"better never let me hear such an ugly question out of 
you again." That settles it. The golden chain of 
confidence and influence is broken. Never again will 
these children return to their parents for information, 
advice and counsel on matters of sex. Elsewhere, they 
will find those who will welcome their questions and 
even introduce the matter and gladly supply them with 
the information desired. These children, a million and 
a half strong, are soon adrift on the storm-tossed, 
passion-seething sea of early adolescence. They are 
without a moral chart or compass. They know not 
their moral longtitude and latitude. They are drifting, 
rapidly drifting towards ports unknown to them. The 
church now becomes busy in her work of rescue. But 
the church leaves them ignorant of their impulses, 
weaknesses and dangers. 

Quarter of a million boys sacrificed annually. — Time 
passes. Many of the rescued are caught by the tides 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 25 

of passion and are swept back into deeper depths of 
passion's sea. The boys are now sixteen to twenty-five. 
They have boon and base companions. Their imagina- 
tions are at fever heat with morbid curiosity and 
interest in the billows of sensual pleasures that heave 
just ahead of them and their ambitions are aflame 
with lascivious daring. In these lustful billows a 
quarter of a million young men annually sacrifice the 
priceless gem of manhood's virtue. Now they are in 
the whirlpools of sinful passion where eighty per cent, 
of them become diseased and many of them perish in 
the awful maelstrom of lust. 

Sixty thousand girls sacrificed annually. — With the 
passing of time, the girls from twelve to twenty, many 
without the safeguard of knowledge, are associating 
freely, gaily with their boon male companions, exposed 
to all the temptations and dangers incident to their 
social environment on this same sea of passion. In the 
immeasurable depths of this sea of human depravity 
sixty thousand of these girls annually lose the priceless 
gem of womanhood's virtue. Owing to the double 
standard of morals, a lifeline of hope is thrown to 
all of the morally wrecked young men, while nearly all 
of the sixty thousand wrecked young women are left 
to perish in the maelstrom of immorality, without a 
glance of sympathy or word of pity. 



26 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

The blackest and meanest sin of present-day civil- 
ization is our false, double standard of morals. In 
the name of all that is decent and just why should the 
woman be crucified and put to open shame, while the 
man is lionized and made popular, for the same act ? 

Never, until we secure a single standard of morals, 
the same treatment for the man that we give the 
woman, can we hope to make much headway in reform- 
ing society. 

Society, like God, should condemn in the man what 
they condemn in the woman. 

Let both stand or fall together, for before high 
heaven, both are equally guilty. 

If the woman is to be cast out and condemned to 
the "scrap-pile" of society for her wrong, place the 
mark of the beast upon the man, the man who 
seduced her, cast him down by her side and compel 
him to stay there until he too has paid the uttermost 
to atone for his sin. 

Parents should strive just as hard to teach the 
beauty and honor of purity to their sons as to their 
daughters. No sensible or fair reason can be offered 
why young men should not go to the marriage altar 
just as pure as they expect to meet their wives there. 
And it will be so when our boys are properly taught, 
and society, the church and the home demand the 
single standard of morals. 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 27 

Who is responsible? — Thousands of poor prudish 
parents line the shores, who, with broken, crushed and 
bleeding hearts, cry in anguish, "Where is my wander- 
ing child tonight?" The poor, ignorant, diseased, 
passion-ridden children, in many cases beyond the 
reach of the home, society and the church, exclaim, 
"Oh, if I had only been told of these dangers !" All 
along the almost socially inaccessible rockbound shores 
of this sea of human passion the churches and philan- 
thropists have built and maintained rescue and found- 
ling homes at an outlay of millions in money. The 
Christian workers engaged are not and cannot save 
one in twenty. The foundling homes are crowded to a 
dangerous unsanitary overflowing with illegitimate 
children, whose mothers are out in the rapids of vice 
or entirely lost in the depths of immorality. Too long 
philanthropists have devoted their means to the work 
of rescue and have neglected the far more important 
and effective work of prevention. Too long have the 
churches opened their doors to rescue lecturers and 
closed them to preventative lecturers. Too long have 
the churches been satisfied with snatching, here and 
there, a forlorn piece of human wreckage from the 
waves of vice, instead of erecting a lighthouse system 
of properly educating and warning the children and 
youths of the land 



28 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 



This series of illustrations suggested the following 
story to the author : 

"Say, mama, where did the baby come from?" 
"Why, son, the doctor brings the babies." "Did the 
doctor bring this baby?" "Yes, son, the doctor 
brought him in a satchel. Now, son, go out and play 

and don't ask mama 
any more questions 
about the baby." It is 
natural for a boy to 
obey and believe his 
mother, but to this 
boy his mother's 
answer only increased 
the mystery of how 
babies get into the 
home. W h i 1 e he 
believed his mother, he 
was not quite satisfied with the explanation. 

One day he finds himself in a group of boys on the 
play ground. One of the boys tauntingly remarks, "I 
will bet this 'mamy-boy' don't know where the babies 
come from." He quickly resents the insinuation with 
the assertion, "Yes I do; mama told me. The doctors 
bring them in a satchel." Then all of the boys have a 
rousing big laugh at his expense. At length, one of the 
boys offers to tell him all about it. While the leader 




How to Tell the Story of Life. - 29 




is telling the story in 

half-truths, clothed in 

the most obscene lan- 
guage, the other . boys 

are nudging each other 

and laughing lustily. 

The story captivates the 

boy. It is so much 

more reasonable than 

the answer he received 

from his mother that he 

concludes, "This is the truth and what mother told me 

was a falsehood." He has lost confidence in his 

mother. He keeps what he has learned a secret from 

her. His mind is 
polluted. No more will 
he go to his mother 
with his questions. He 
will go where he is 
welcomed and can get 
information. 

One day he reads a 
note handed him by a 
school-mate that gives 
him more wrong infor- 
mation on sex. A few 




30 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 



days later, the author of the note has a side-chat with 
him and boasts of his conquests among girls of a 
certain kind. His mind is now astir with morbid 
curiosity, and he is restless under the consciousness of 
new and strange inpulses. He frequently meets the 

boys in their cliques on 
the playground and in the 
toilet. Gradually they 
introduce him to the secret 
vice. 

One day his mother 
sends him down town on 
an errand. A news boy 
calls him aside and shows 
him some very suggestive 
pictures of women. 
Having some money of 
his own, he buys a 
set, takes them home and 
hides them from his mother. Several times a day he 
takes them from their hiding place and revels in lustful 
fancies and delight as he looks on them, while his 
unsuspecting mother contemplates the providential pro- 
tection of her son and his angelic innocence. 

There are at least four very obscene books being 
circulated, bearing no name of author or publisher. 
When one of these books gets into the hands of boys 




How to Tell the Story of Life. 



31 




of the seventh and 
eigthth grades and 
the high school, it is 
worn thread-bare, as 
it is circulated from 
one to another. 

One day, this boy 
was handed one of 
these four books. 
Every phase of sex 
perversion, found 
among fast women 
and immoral men in the upper crust of easy moving 
society, is told by the author in the most obscene and 
exciting detail. He reads it, then he rereads it several 
times. Eternity alone can tell the injury that was 

done this boy by that 



book. 

He decides to go to 
a "show" and there he 
receives more false 
ideas of men, women 
and marriage. The 
low-necked, above-the- 
k n e e and slit-skirt 
dress, with flesh- 
colored and close-fitting 




32 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 




underwear of the actresses 
and female dancers set his 
morbid curiosity wild. 
Divorce plots, efforts at 
the overthrow of virtue 
and the most suggestive 
spooning scenes fill in the 
interims between the more 
exciting parts of the 
night's entertainment. 
He is now eighteen. 
Like most all young men, who are healthy, he has 
some imaginary and some real sex problems he does 
not understand. He is worried about them. He reads 
the advertisements of "quack" doctors, sends off for 
their treatment ; once in their clutches, they bleed him 
of his money, time and health, and bring him no relief. 

Still puzzled and 
having been told 
repeatedly the "sex- 
necessity" lie, that one's 
physical, mental and 
sexual health depend 
upon the exercise of the 
creative function, he 
decides to do "what 
most men do." For 




How to Tell the Story of Life. 



33 



several years he is the leader of the "gay" young men. 
Such leadership means social dissipations, social sins, 
social crimes. 

Time passes. He had been one of the boys. He 
met, wooed and won a woman of beauty, truth and 
virtue. His dissipations are things of the past. The 
wedding- day has come and gone. He takes her to his 
palatial home. The portals swing wide to welcome 
her. She reigns in that home like a queen. In twelve 
brief months she glides to the bed of suffering like an 
kngel, and the cold 
waters bathe her feet 
as she endures the 
throes of parturition. 
Can there be greater 
suffering ? We shall 
see. Consciousness is 
restored. A look of 
fondest anticipation 
beams from her eyes 
and a smile of infinite 
joy illumines her pale cheeks and brow when she 
receives her first-born into her arms. Then, a shriek 
of heart rending agony ! She realizes that her babe 
can never run and play as other children do. Its 
features are weazened, its body deformed, its mind 
enfeebled and its eyes are blind. For days she lingers 




34 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

at the portals of death, not from the pains of parturi- 
tion, not altogether from a vicious infection, but from 
the bitterest disappointment that can come to a mother. 

One day the family physician calls the young 
husband and father into a side room and says, "Young 
man, you were not cured; your wife may be an invalid 
for life and your baby can never see." 

There is enough pathos in this illustrated story, 
reproduced in real life, many times annually, in every 
county, of every state in this great nation of ours, to 
lead every one who has, or who may, assume the 
responsibility of marriage, parentage and the training 
of a child to become a thorough convert and an active 
advocate of the new methods of dealing with these 
personal and social problems. 

THE PRICE HE PAID. 
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 

I said I would have my fling, 

And do what a young man may; 
And I didn't believe a thing 

That the parsons have to say. 
I didn't believe in a God 

That gives us blood like fire, 
Then flings us into hell because 

We answer the call of desire. 

And I said: "Religion is rot, 

And the laws of the world are nil; 

For the bad man is he who is caught 
And cannot foot his bill. 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 35 

And there is no place called hell; 

And heaven is only a truth, 
When a man has his way with a maid 

In the fresh keen hour of youth. 

"And money can buy us grace, 

If it rings on the plate of the church; 
And money can neatly erase 

Each sign of a sinful smirch." 
For I saw men everywhere, 

Hotfooting the road of vice; 
And women and preachers smiled on them 

As long as they paid the price. 

So I had my joy of life; 

I went the pace of the town; 
And then I took me a wife, 

And started to settle down. 
I had gold enough and to spare 

For all of the simple joys 
That belong with a house and a home 

And a brood of girls and boys. 

I married a girl with health 

And virtue and spotless fame. 
I gave in exchange my wealth 

And a proud old family name. 
And I gave her the love of a heart 

Grown sated and sick of sin ! 
My deal with the devil was all cleaned up. 

And the last bill handed in. 

She was going to bring me a child, 

And when in labor she cried, 
With love and fear I was wild — 

But now I wish she had died. 
For the son she bore me was blind 

And crippled and weak and sore ! 
And his mother was left a wreck. 

It was so she settled my score. 



36 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

I said I must have my fling, 

And they knew the path I would go; 
Yet no one told me a thing 

Of what I needed to know. 
Folks talk too much of a soul 

From heavenly joys debarred — 
And not enough of the babes unborn, 

By the sins of their fathers scarred. 

— From The Cosmopolitan, Copyrighted. 



CHAPTER III. 

Who Should Give This Knowledge. 

Parents, the natural teachers. — When children are 
born, they have a capacity for learning how to crawl, 
stand alone, walk, love and hate, talk, read and write, 
to judge of what is right and wrong. All they may 
come to know in the future, true or false, good or evil, 
they must learn. In bringing children into the world 
parents assume the responsibility of thinking and de- 
ciding for the child during, infancy, and of safegxiard- 
ing their future well-being by properly looking after 
their physical, mental and moral interests. More- 
over, the parents assume the responsibility of giving 
their children such training and education as their de- 
velopment and future interests require. 

Children naturally go to their parents. — Coming into 
the home utterly devoid of knowledge, physically and 
mentally helpless, children unconsciously come to rec- 
ognize their parents as their natural teachers and to 
have absolute confidence in them. Ask a little boy of 
three to ten years old who he thinks to be the great- 
est and best man in all of the world, and the prompt 
reply will be, "my papa." Ask a little girl of the 

37 



38 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

same age who she thinks to be the greatest and best 
woman in all of the world, and her unstudied reply 
will be, "my mama." The answers may be true or 
false, but you do not doubt the sincerity of the child. 
The greatest calamity that can come to children comes 
when they are compelled by convincing evidence to lose 
faith in the greatness and goodness of their parents. 
No greater misfortune can come to parents than to lose 
the confidence of their children. This natural and com- 
plete confidence and dependence of children in their 
parents give to parents a very decided advantage over 
all other teachers, good or bad, in the early training 
and education of their children. It is because of this 
natural confidence that children first go to their parents 
with questions about their origin. If parents do not 
betray them, they will continue to come for information 
concerning all of their sex problems. It is these con- 
ditions that make parents the first and most natural 
teachers of sex knowledge. 

The boy naturally goes to his father, after he is ten. — 

While it is usually the mother who is expected to give 
the story of the life to the enquiring child, this is not 
necessarily true. Either the father or the mother, or 
both, may give this information. The children are 
practically neuter as to gender until they are ten years 
old. From this time on the boy will look upon life 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 39 

from the masculine point of view and his father be- 
comes his natural teacher. But if the father is care- 
less, or dead, the mother should see that her boy gets 
such information and advice as his developing boy- 
hood demands. She can give much of this. She can 
secure for him books adapted to his age. She can ask 
the family physician to give him a talk, or his teacher 
or pastor, if they be informed. 

The girl naturally goes to her mother, after she is 
ten. — The girl, at the age of ten, begins to look upon 
life from the feminine point of view and her mother 
becomes her natural teacher. But if the mother be 
careless or dead, the father should see that his daughter 
gets such information and advice as her developing 
girlhood and womanhood demand. He can give her 
some advice that should come from a father's point 
of view. He can secure such books as will be of value 
to her. He can often secure the services of a lady 
doctor or some wise mother in the community. The 
mother should not neglect to be free with her son, or 
the father with his daughter. It is a fine thing for 
a boy to get information and advice from the viewpoint 
of his mother, and for the daughter to receive infor- 
mation and counsel from the viewpoint of her father. 

Schools must leave earliest instruction to the home. — 
There is a growing conviction that sex hygiene 



40 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

should be taught in all of our schools. Many colleges 
and universities and some high schools have intro- 
duced it in a limited way. This instruction will be 
first introduced into the high schools, then later into 
the seventh and eighth grades. Definite sex instruc- 
tion will perhaps never be given to students under ten 
or twelve years of age. The schools must leave the 
first and most important part of this delicate work 
to the parents. The teaching of the moral side of sex 
in the public schools can, at best, only supplement the 
work of the home. For sex instruction to be most 
effective, both the moral and the scientific aspects of 
the subject should be presented in the home and school. 
The home, if ideal, will be the place for ethical instruc- 
tion and the school will best be fitted for presenting 
the scientific. 

Some parents will never do their duty. — The present 
great moral awakening will doubtless lead a majority 
of parents to assume the duty of instructing their chil- 
dren in these delicate truths. One-fourth of the par- 
ents will never do this. Their children will receive no 
instruction in the home and will not be encouraged 
to go to church or Sunday School. Since no knowl- 
edge is so necessary to a child's well-being, and since 
these children do not get this information at home and 
do not go to church, they must receive this information 
in the schools. 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 41 

What the Sunday Schools could do. — This instruction 
could be given in a very effective way in segregated 
Sunday School classes. Every Sunday School teacher, 
including the pastor, should be thoroughly informed 
and qualified to give this instruction. They should 
welcome parents and young people who seek advice 
and counsel. The work of the church should supple- 
ment the work in the home. 



CHAPTER IV. 

What Knowledge Should be Given, and When ? 

Determined by age, sex, curiosity, etc. — The question 
forming the heading of this chapter refers to personal 
purity and sex knowledge. What, and how much, in- 
formation should be given to a child at any one time 
should be determined by the age, sex, intelligence, curi- 
osity and eagerness of the child. 

When the child seeks information. — Every child 
should be told the truth about his advent into this 
world. This should not be forced on the child ahead 
of his mental development. When a child begins to 
show a natural interest by voluntarily asking ques- 
tions, he is prepared to receive the information, if given 
in a natural way. 

Better too soon than too late, or never.— Some chil- 
dren become interested by the time they are four or 
even younger, others not until they are six or seven. 
If a child does not enquire of his parents about his 
origin by the time he is seven or eight, it would be 
well for the parents to ascertain whether he has not 
received this information from unsavory sources. If 
they find he has, they then face an unfortunate situ- 

42 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 43 

ation. It would have been better for them to have 
told the story of life a year too soon than ten days 
too late. But they should face the situation. Further 
delay will increase the difficulty and the danger. The 
child's mind has been polluted. Morbid curiosity has 
been aroused. He has a perverted vision of sex. He 
has been largely misinformed. It is harder to unteach 
untruths than it is to teach the truth. The effects 
of wrong teaching can be overcome only by right teach- 
ing. It will require more time, more care and more 
patience now than it would have done before. 

The best way. — The most natural and satisfactory 
way of telling the story of life to a child is to approach 
the question gradually, by telling first how God or 
nature brings every sprig of grass, plant, vegetable 
and tree into the world. Here you can go into every 
interesting detail that the child can comprehend. It 
will save going into the details when you come to the 
higher animals and man. The child's mind compre- 
hends a great deal more than most parents know. If 
the details are brought out clearly among the plants 
and lower forms of animal life, the child's fancy will 
fill out to his own satisfaction the details among the 
higher animals and man. In early adolescence, the 
facts may be given in detail. At the close of the first 
story, promise the child that in a few weeks or months, 
when he is older and can understand things better, 



44 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

you will tell him another story, how all the little oysters 
and fish are brought into the world. 

How often, a story.— The amount of time allowed to 
intervene between the first and second story will have 
to be determined by the age, intelligence, eagerness and 
curiosity of the child. The second story should be 
introduced by reviewing the first story. There are 
several advantages in this. The child's mind is re- 
freshed with the truths of the first story. If he has 
had his mind tainted, at any time, by vile stories, there 
is no better way to correct this than by telling him 
in a perfectly natural way how God brings all the 
little plants into this world. There is nothing in this 
to suggest impure thoughts. He carries the similari- 
ties of reproduction in the plant world right over into 
the animal kingdom. Again the review serves the 
purpose of a splendid introduction to the second story. 
When this story has been completed, assure the child 
that in a short time you will tell him a third story about 
the insects and birds. This method should be con- 
tinued until the last story has been told. 

The best time. — If these stories are told in the spring 
and summer, the parents will be able to show their 
children real examples of mating, embryology, preg- 
nancy, germination and birth. Every part of nature's 
plan of perpetuating plant and animal life can in this 
way be made interesting, plain and instructive to chil- 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 45 

dren/ There is not a place in the world where a child 
can live where it is not possible for parents to get a 
few flowers and plant some garden seed, even in a can 
of dirt. In this way the whole story of life may not 
only be told but the processes witnessed. These proc- 
esses and truths become natural, real and sacred to 
the child. 

The difference between a boy and a girl. — When chil- 
dren are quite small they naturally become interested 
in knowing why one child is a boy and another is 
a girl — what makes the difference between them. 
Where there are small boys and girls in the same 
home, under eight or ten years of age, provided their 
minds have not been contaminated, they should be per- 
mitted by the mother and under her watchful care, to 
bathe together. Under these natural conditions they 
will notice a difference in their bodies and will nat- 
urally make some inquiries. This will give the mother 
a natural opportunity to explain the difference. Or 
when the mother is dressing or bathing the baby, 
the older children will naturally be about. Let them 
admire the nude form. This may suggest the ques- 
tion of difference. A wise explanation from the 
mother may save a child from years of morbid curi- 
osity and sex injury. 

Object lessons of mating. — In the spring and summer, 
every child daily witnesses the mating of the common 



46 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

house fly. It is so common that even the vicious do 
not pay any special attention to it. Impure thoughts 
are rarely suggested by it. The house fly furnishes 
a splendid object lesson which can be used by par- 
ents in explaining the functions of the reproductive 
organs. 

Witnessing the birth of animals. — It is a great deal 
wiser for a father to invite his son to accompany him 
to witness the mating and birth of the domestic ani- 
mals than for the boy to sneakingly seek such oppor- 
tunities in a clandestine way. The first is natural, 
the last way is unnatural. The first gives the father 
a natural opportunity to explain reproduction and birth 
and to advise him of what is modest, discreet and manly 
in viewing and speaking of such scenes. For the boy 
to sneakingly look upon such scenes is positively de- 
grading. There is no sane reason why the mother 
should not accompany her daughter to witness the same 
phenomena, that she may have an opportunity to give 
the same instructions to her. 

Advantages of the new way. — Wherever the parents 
have told the stories of life, in a frank, natural, chaste 
and scientific way, their children, when ten and twelve 
years old, look upon sex in a perfectly natural way, 
they can be easily approached by their parents, and 
they are free to come to their parents for information 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 47 

and advice. This natural condition of childhood and 
companionable relation between parents and children 
is certainly an improvement over the old method that 
caused children at that age to have morbid curiosity, 
precocious passion, perverted sex vision, acquired bad 
habits and lost confidence in and afraid to approach 
their parents for advice and information. 

Makes future talks easy for the mother. — As time 
passes, the mother who has given her daughter the 
stories of life will find it easy and pleasant to give 
her daughter information and advice concerning 
puberty, the secret vice, the choice of girl chums, her 
association with boys, the deeper significance of sex, 
her association with young men, the habits of many 
young men, venereal diseases, the choice of a com- 
panion and the miracle of motherhood. 

Makes future talks easy for the father. — In like man- 
ner as the years go by, the father will find it easy for 
him to give his son information and advice concerning 
the secret vice, the choice of boy chums, his social rela- 
tions with small girls, puberty, the function of his 
sexual organs, experiences common to young men, the 
danger of quack doctors and their pamphlets, prosti- 
• tution, venereal diseases, his social relations with young 
women, the choice of a companion and the sacredness 
of fatherhood. 



CHAPTER V. 
How Should This Knowledge Be Given? 

Qualifications needed. — The idea that nature will 
teach parents and teachers how to teach sex truths to 
children and young people is just about as silly as the 
old idea, "If God has called you to preach, He will 
tell you what to say." We have all heard samples of 
that kind of preaching and were made no wiser or 
better by what we heard. There are few adults who 
are prepared to tell the story of life to a child and 
fewer still who are able to give additional instruction 
as the child grows older. There are three indispens- 
able qualifications needed by teachers, parents and lec- 
turers to make their advice and instruction wholesome 
and efficient. 

A moral qualification.-— (1) They should have a 
moral qualification. They should regard the organs 
of sex and their functions as pure and sacred. If they 
are accustomed to thinking of them in a light and 
lascivious way and of talking about them in the lan- 
guage of the street, it would be a dangerous experi- 
ment for such to attempt to tell their children about 
their birth or warn them against sexual vices. 

48 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 49 

One smutty story, told by a father and overheard 
by his son, will destroy all the good influence of all the 
talks on personal purity the father can give to his son 
in a life time. The same is true of a mother's influence 
on her daughter and a teacher's influence with a pupil. 

A mental qualification.— (2) Parents and teachers 
should have a mental qualification. One-half of the 
names, used by matured people, when referring to the 
organs of sex, their functions and abuse, in their true 
meaning do not even remotely refer to these organs, 
their use or abuse, and many of the words used by them 
could not be found in the dictionary, for the simple 
reason they do not belong to the English or any other 
language. This is a sample of the mental fitness that 
perhaps a majority of matured people have for this 
important work. They picked up these words in child- 
hood from the ignorant class whose minds were filled 
with debasing thoughts of sex. The use of these 
words, in the presence of a boy, who is familiar with 
their use on the playground, suggests impure thoughts 
to him. Those who would teach truths to the young 
or old, to the individual, to classes or to the masses 
should be able to command a chaste, plain and scientific 
language. It is difficult to say which needs correct 
sex instruction most, the young or the old. 

Recently a cultured lawyer invited the author over 
to his office for a friendly chat. He reproduced in 



50 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

gesture and language, as best he could, a talk he had 
given his twelve year old boy, warning him of the 
dangers of the secret vice. It was evident that he 
loved his boy and was deeply interested in his future 
welfare. The language he used was the same he had 
learned when a school boy and the same his boy had 
evidently heard on the playground. It is decidedly 
a question whether he did his boy any good. A good 
talk was spoiled by the use of unfortunate language. 

Skill needed. — (3) They should possess skill. It re- 
quires time, reading, thought and experience to develop 
skill. The effect, good or bad, produced on an indi- 
vidual or an audience will be determined in no small 
measure by the methods used in approaching the sub- 
ject and in dealing with it. One's motives may be 
most unselfish and sincere, but if he goes at the subject 
bluntly, awkwardly, severely, suggestively, he will ac- 
complish little or no good. 

In a western town of twenty thousand, where the 
moral conditions in the high school were simply de- 
plorable, the superintendent decided that he would, give 
the boys and young men a talk on personal purity. 
He called into the chapel seven hundred boys and 
young men. This was a new experience to him and 
he approached the subject abruptly. The boys, hav- 
ing been accustomed to treating every reference to sex 
as a joke, anticipating what was coming, began to 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 51 

nudge and wink at each other. The attitude assumed 
by the boys embarrassed and caused the teacher to 
lose self-control. He soon had to resort to the use 
of questionable terms to make himself understood. He 
utterly failed to accomplish what he desired and what 
the boys needed. The experiment came near costing 
him his position. Eighteen lectures from the author, 
two weeks later, won the town back to the superin- 
tendent. The citizens saw that what the superintend- 
ent- desired to do was just what the boys needed and 
the town needed. He lacked skill. 

A course of lectures needed. — A few editors, doctors, 
teachers, ministers and authors have been rather severe 
on parents for not teaching their children these truths. 
No doubt some censure is due. But they should re- 
member that ten years ago few parents had ever heard 
an address from a wise teacher, a minister or had read 
a book that would give them any idea of how to give 
this instruction. This condition exists largely today. 
The above leaders owe it to every community to pro- 
vide a course of practical lectures for the masses annu- 
ally, and to see that every home has a chance to secure 
suitable books on personal purity. 

Some general advice. — In giving this instruction 
there are some general principles that should be ob- 
served. The language and thought should be adapted 
to the age, sex and intelligence of the individual or 
the audience. 



52 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

In the home it is more natural for the father to 
impart this knowledge to his son and the mother to 
her daughter. These should be strictly private, con- 
fidential, friendly talks — just two in these confidences, 
papa and his son, or mama and her daughter. No 
other member of the family need know about it. 

In community work, there should be a talk given 
just to boys from ten to fourteen years old. The 
number of boys to an audience should not be many. 
This is a difficult age to handle. Only an expert can 
do it. There should be a series of lectures given just 
to men. Since manhood has dawned by the time a boy 
is fifteen and he is then exposed to every danger that 
the matured man is, there is no reason why the boy 
of this age should not hear the series of lectures to 
men ; unless the series includes one of advice to married 
men. There should be a lecture given to girls from 
ten to fourteen, and there should be given a series of 
lectures to matured women, including all girls from 
fifteen up. There are some truths pertaining to our 
social relations that can be presented safely to mixed 
audiences. But, if a community is to receive safe, 
practical, definite, scientific and ethical instruction, it 
must be done in the main to segregated audiences. 

This instruction should be given in a dignified, 
manly, sober, sane and reverent manner, in the same 
way that any other vital truth would be presented. 



CHAPTER VI. 

A Talk about Baby Plants. 

Mama compliments the child. — Son (or daughter, or 
the child's given name) mama (or papa) is glad to 
know that you are now old enough and smart enough 
to become interested in knowing where you were be- 
fore you were born and how you got into this world. 
Papa and I have been expecting you to become inter- 
ested in this subject and we have talked together over 
what we have decided you ought to know and 
the best way of telling you. We are especially pleased 
because you came first to us with your questions. 
Papa and mama love you as no one else can or does, 
and we are more interested in you than any one else 
can be. We are your natural teachers in such deli- 
cate, private and sacred things as you have asked about. 
God has planned for children to come to their parents 
when they want to know how He sends little children 
into the home. 

Babies know nothing at birth. — When you came to 
us you were tiny and helpless. You could not crawl, 
stand alone or walk. When you were born you did 
not know anything. When you learned how to crawl, 
papa and mama thought you were very smart. Yet, 



54 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

you did not know enough then to keep from crawl- 
ing into the fire, a pool of water, or over a cliff. You 
did not know enough to keep from swallowing pins, 
eating glass or poison. At first we had to do all of 
your thinking for you. Even then your mind was 
growing and every day you were learning something 
new. All you know today you learned since you were 
born. This world is full of things to be learned. In 
a whole lifetime one cannot learn all that is possible 
to be known. But, there are a great many things we 
should learn, as we grow from childhood to manhood 
and womanhood. 

Children learn something each day. — You know 
some things today that you did not know last year, and 
some things that you know now you could not have 
understood a year ago, for the reason that you were 
not old enough. In this world of mysteries, there are 
many things that you would like to know, but you 
understand that your mind is not strong enough. It 
is a real pleasure to know that, as you grow older, you 
will be able to study them and to understand many 
of them. You would like to know all there is in the 
fourth reader. There is nothing in the fourth reader 
that could do you a bit of harm, but there are some 
things in the fourth reader that you could not under- 
stand. If mama should read them to you and try 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 55 

ever so hard to make them plain, there would still be 
some things in the book you could not understand. 
This is because the book was not written for children 
of your age. It was written for children who are sev- 
eral years older. You know that you must learn first 
what is in the first reader, and when you have learned 
to read and understand that, then you will be ready 
for the second reader. The second reader prepares 
you for the third, and that prepares you for the fourth. 

Things a child cannot know. — Just so, you would like 
to know how God brings little children into the home. 
It is God's beautiful and wonderful plan. It could not 
do you any harm, if you could understand it. But 
there are some mysteries about how children come into 
this world that you are not old enough to understand. 

Stories that mama will tell you. — Mama will, at this 
time, tell you a very beautiful and interesting story 
that you can understand and enjoy. It is how God 
brings all of the little baby sprigs of grass, plants, 
vegetables and trees into this world. Then, in a few 
months, mama will tell you how God brings baby oys^ 
ters and fish into the world. Then, every few months, 
mama will tell you a new story, until you have been 
told how the baby insects, frogs, birds, animals come 
into the world, and finally the last story — how little 
babies come into the home. By the time you are eight 
years old you will be ready for the last story. 



56 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

Right one time and wrong another. — You are old 

enough to know that there are many things that it 
is right and necessary to do six days out of the week, 
but it would be wrong for us to do them on Sunday. 
Then you know that there are a few things that we 
do, while proper and right, under certain conditions 
and at certain times, it would be very wrong to do 
them under other conditions. For example : Every 
few days you take an all-over bath. It is perfectly 
right and proper for you to do this and for mama to 
help you. All people, who desire to live clean and 
healthy lives, take frequent baths. But you have ■ 
noticed that of late, when you take your baths, that 
the neighbors are not present. Large boys and girls, 
men and women, do not bathe together. This is be- 
cause our bodies are sacred and they should not be 
exposed. This is why we wear clothing, that our 
entire bodies may not be exposed to the public. We 
do not speak the names of God and Jesus in a light 
and frivolous way, for the reason that these names 
are sacred. 

The sacredness of childbirth. — Of all of the delicate, 
pure and sacred experiences of life, that which is the 
purest, the most delicate and most sacred, is how 
little children are brought into the home. It is so 
sacred and delicate that good people seldom speak of 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 57 

it, and never in a light and frivolous way. It is for this 
reason that you have never heard your papa and 
mama speak of it. It is not wrong for husbands and 
wives, fathers and mothers to speak to each other about 
this experience. There is no harm in grown unmar- 
ried people- speaking of the matter, when there is some 
good reason for doing so. It is not wise and best 
for little children to speak to each other about how 
babies come into the world. When they become inter- 
ested, they should go to their parents, just as you 
have come to me. We are your natural teachers and 
we want you to always feel perfectly free to come to 
us with questions about things of this nature. When 
you are older, you will understand better why mama 
gives you this advice. 

Some do not look upon it as sacred. — Some men and 
women, boys and girls have not been trained to be 
good. They get angry, quarrel and fight, use bad 
language, break the Sabbath and do other wrong 
things. Some appear to enjoy doing wrong and in 
leading others to do wrong. These people do not look 
upon God's plan of bringing children into the world 
as being pure and sacred. They use very bad language 
when they talk to each other about the story of life 
and when they try to tell it to others. When little 
children hear these children and grown people talk 



58 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

about these things, their little minds are rilled with 
bad words and ugly thoughts. In this way many 
small boys and girls are started wrong and are sure 
to have a hard struggle to rid themselves of impure 
thoughts, words and habits in after life. 

Mama's advice. — It may not be long before some 
schoolmate, or some one older than yourself, will 
say to you, "I know something that you don't. You 
would like to know it too. I will tell you, if 
you will not tell your papa and mama. It is 
how you got into this world/' Whenever some 
one offers to tell you something that you are not to 
tell your papa and mama, you may be sure that it is 
wrong, that it will injure you and most likely it is 
false. Mama would advise you to say to them, "I 
do not care to know anything that I can not tell papa 
and mama." 

The story of baby plants.— The story of life that 
mama will tell you at this time will be about the plants, 
flowers and trees, how their young come into this 
world. I have gathered some beautiful flowers that 
will help to make the story plain to you. This will 
be our first lesson in what is called Botany. When 
you get to be older }< t ou will study Botany in school. 
Botany is a study of plant life. Then you will learn 
that every part of a plant has a special name. When 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 



59 



you are older, you will learn and remember the names 
of plants and their parts. 

The calyx. — The story of life, in all flowering plants, 
begins in the flower. We will now look at and examine 




this flower. At sight, we notice that the parts of a 
flower are arranged in whorls or circles. The outer 



60 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

circle of the flower is called the ( 1 ) calyx. You will 
notice that in some of these flowers, the calyx is highly 
colored, in others it looks like small green leaves and 
in some of the flowers the calyx is entirely absent. 
You will notice that in some flowers the calyx is com- 
posed of four or more parts. These separate parts 
are called (2) sepals. In other flowers the sepals have 
grown together in a circle and appear to be only 
one. In such flowers we count the sepals by the num- 
ber of notches or curves on the top edge of the calyx. 

The corolla.— The second whorl is called the (3) 
corolla. This whorl is usually the most highly colored 
part of the flower. If either of the whorls of the 
flower is absent, it is the calyx. The separate parts of 
the corolla are called (4) petals. Some times the 
petals are separated to the base of the flower. In other 
flowers they are more or less united 

Stamens, or papa parts. — While the calyx and the 
corolla form the most attractive and* beautiful parts 
of the flower, they are by no means so important as 
the parts we will now study. Let us now carefully 
study these central organs. They are called the essen- 
tial organs. Were it not for these organs in the 
flower, no new grasses, plants, vegetables and trees 
would come into the world. Such a misfortune would 
rob this world of much of its beautv and wealth. In 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 61 

this flower the next circle consists of a number of small, 
slender org-ans. These are called (5) stamens. On 
top of these organs are delicate bodies, poised so that 
the merest breeze will shake them. These bodies are 
filled with a very fine, powdery substance called pollen. 
These bodies producing the pollen are called (6) an- 
thers. You can rub the pollen off with your finger. 
This dusty pollen varies in color in different flowers. 

You cannot remember all of these names now, so 
I will give you another name that you will have no 
trouble to remember and it means the same thing as 
the word stamen. I guess that it was the second little 
word that fell from your -little baby lips that mamma 
understood. It was the word papa. These are the 
male organs of the flower, or they are the papa parts 
of the flower and possess the father nature of the 
flower. 

Pistil, or mama part. — The central organ in this 
flower is called the pistil. The pistil is formed of 
three parts. At the base of the pistil is the (7) pod, 
more correctly called the ovary. In the ovary little 
seeds are formed. On top of the pool or ovary is 
usually to be found a slender stem called the (8) style. 
On top of the style is a delicate spongy enlargement 
called the (9) stigma. The stigina, style and ovary 
form the pistil. In some plants the flower has a num- 
ber of pistils. 



62 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

But we will not try to remember all of these names 
now. Mama will give you another name that you can 
remember. It was the first little word that ever fell 
from your little baby lips. It was the word mama. 
Well, the pistil, composed of the stigma, style and 
ovary, is the mama part of the flower and possesses 
the mother nature of the flower. 

Papa and mama natures unite. — When the pollen is 
ripe, the anther cells of the papa parts of the flower 
burst open and the tiny, light, powdery pollen falls 
out and is carried by gravity, wind or insects to the 
stigma of the mother part of the flower. The little 
pores of the stigma open, admitting the grains of 
pollen, which the little currents of water in the style 
carry to the seed in the ovary. When the pollen, pos- 
sessing the father nature, unites with the tiny germs in 
the ovary, possessing the mother nature, the little 
germs or seed are said to be fertilized. That means 
that both the papa and mama natures have united and 
that there is life in the seed. When this is done the 
seed is very tiny. If the two natures had not united, 
the little germs in the mother part of the flower could 
never have developed into seed. But now the seeds 
grow and ripen in the pod. While this is being done, 
food is being stored up in the seed for the little baby 
plants to live on for the first few days after they come 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 63 

into the world. In such seed, there are the tiny 
beginnings of future plants. 

Sprouting of seed.— When the seeds are ripe, the 
pod bursts open and the seeds fall upon the ground, or 
men gather them and later plant them in the soil. In 
the spring time, the sunshine and rain cause the life 
in the seeds to become active and soon the seeds sprout 
and little stems appear above the ground. When these 
little stems of life appear above ground, they are 
nothing but little baby sprigs of grass, little baby plants 
or little baby trees. 

"Be fruitful and multiply. "—When God created the 
first grasses, plants and trees, He commanded them 
to be "fruitful and multiply." In this command, God 
meant for them to bring little baby plants into the 
world so as to keep the world beautiful and to fur- 
nish all of the animals and man with plenty of food. 
In this stOry you have learned how all the grown-up 
plants and trees obey this command of God. 

Mother-flowers and father-flowers. — In the flowers 
we have studied, we have found both the male and 
female organs to be in the same flower. Each flower 
possessed the male and female natures, or as we have 
called them, the father and mother natures. But this 
is not true of all the plants and trees. In some of 
them, flowers are found having only the stamens, or 



64 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

father organs. These would be called father-flowers. 
They could not produce seed or fruit. On other plants 
and trees of the same kind could be found flowers hav- 
ing only pistils. These are mother-flowers. Father- 
flowers and mother-flowers may be found growing on 
the same limb of a plant or tree, as in the Indian corn 
and the mulberry tree. Among such trees as the pop- 
lar, willow and sometimes the persimmon tree, one 
tree will bear only father-flowers and another tree will 
bear only mother-flowers. 

Indian corn. — In the Indian corn, the ear of corn, 
including the cob, grains of corn, silks and shuck, 
form the mother part of the corn stalk. The tassel 
is the father part and contains the father nature. The 
tassel forms millions of grains of pollen. On passing 
through a patch of corn, you have noticed the pollen 
falling everywhere and on every object. There are 
often as many as one thousand grains of corn on one 
ear. Each grain sends out from one to three little 
silks beyond the shuck to catch little grains of pollen. 
'Should one little corn germ on the cob fail to receive 
a grain of pollen it would never develop. If there 
were no grains of corn formed, there would be no corn 
to plant and in a few years there would be no corn in 
the world. Here we see that every little baby stalk 
of corn must have a father and a mother. 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 65 

What gravity, wind and insects do. — There are three 
ways by which nature carries the pollen to the mother 
part of the flower — wind, gravity and insects. In the 
corn we found that the ears are below the tassel. 
Gravity and the wind are the agencies that nature uses 
in bringing the two natures of corn together. Where 
the father organs are short and way down in the bloom, 
such flowers form a sweet juice at the base of the 
bloom. This attracts the bees and other insects. As 
they squeeze their way into the neck of the flower and 
then back out, they rub off grains of pollen onto their 
legs, backs and wings. They carry this pollen to the 
next flower of the same kind and on entering the neck 
of that flower, they rub off some of the pollen onto 
the stigma of the mother part of the flower. In this 
way the seeds are fertilized. God arranged for these 
flowers to form the sweet juice so as to attract insects 
that in this way their seed might be fertilized. 

The two great laws. — In this story of the plants, you 
have learned in a general way of God's plan of bring- 
ing into being all of the little grasses, weeds, plants, 
vegetables and trees. You have learned two great laws, 
namely: Every plant and tree that comes from seed 
must have a father and mother. This is the first law of 
nature. We have also learned that the father and 
mother natures must unite with each other before a 



66 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

baby plant can come into the world. This is the second 
law that we have learned. When we come to study 
God's plan in bringing baby oysters, fish, insects, birds, 
animals and human babies into the world, we will find 
that God uses the same laws. 

These laws are pure and sacred. — When we look 
upon a bed of beautiful flowers, pin one on our dress, 
gather a bouquet to place in a vase in our room, or 
to be used in forming a wreath of flowers to be placed 
on the coffin containing the lifeless body of a friend, 
when they are in all of their gorgeous beauty, fra- 
grance and freshness, these two laws are at work in 
their effort to bring another generation of plants into 
the world. God is the author of the male and female 
organs of the plants, and for this reason the union 
of their two natures is sacred. Plants were the first 
living things that God made. Man was the last liv- 
ing being that God made. Plants were at the bottom 
of God's creative work and man was at the top. If 
the laws that we find in the plants, enabling them 
to bring their young into the world, are the same laws 
that enable human fathers and mothers to bring their 
babies into this world, and these laws are pure when 
found in the plants, they certainly should be considered 
pure and sacred in the human family. The human 
family being so much higher in the scale of life than 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 67 

the plants, we should regard these laws as being much 
more sacred in the human family than among the 
plants. From this you will see how very sinful it is 
to speak lightly of how babies come into the world. 

In mama's next talk she will tell you a story of how 
the little oysters and fish are brought into this exist- 
ence. 



CHAPTER VII. 
A Talk about Baby Oysters and Fish. 

In this talk we will find out many interesting things 
about God's plan of bringing little oysters and fish into 
the world. Before we take up this new story, we must 
refresh our minds with some things we learned in our 
first story. We will be able then to appreciate the 
resemblances and differences between the coming of 
little plants, oysters and fish into the world. 

A review of the plants.— In studying the story of life 
among the plants, we found in most all flowers that 
they had male organs and female organs; that the 
male organs produced a fertilizing powdery substance 
called pollen and the female organs produced seed; 
that every baby plant had to have a father and mother 
and that their two natures have to unite. We found 
that some plants have flowers bearing only father parts 
wh'le other plants or trees of the same kind would have 
flowers having only mother parts. We learned that 
God uses the wind, gravity and insects in bringing 
the two natures together. 

The oyster. — Among* the lower forms of animal life, 

as in case of the oyster, the male and female natures 

are in the same animal. Oysters are very soft, shape- 
68 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 69 

less animals living in -large, strong and heavy shells. 
The soft bodies of these animals are attached to the 
inner walls of the shells by strong, gristly muscles. 
These animals live in great masses and their shells 
are cemented to each other. From this arrangement 
you see that they are not able to move about, mix 
and mingle with each other. 

How baby oysters come into the world. — The mother 
parts of the oyster form little eggs which are fertilized 
by a liquid substance formed by organs containing the 
father nature. The fertilized eggs, when expelled 
from the shell, float off and become attached to some 
oyster shell or rock. Later, they hatch and the baby 
oysters form about their bodies hard shells that are 
made larger as the oysters grow. In this way the 
little oysters come into the world. 

Oysters and plants compared. — In oysters and plants 
we find that their young must have a father and mother, 
and that father and mother natures must unite. The 
ovaries of the plant produce seed; in the oyster they 
produce eggs. The male organs of the plant produce 
a powdery substance; the male organs of the fish pro- 
duce a fertilizing liquid substance. The seeds' of plants 
are fertilized while in the ovary; the eggs of oysters 
are fertilized after they leave the ovary. The seeds of 
plants are planted in the soil and the baby plants grow 



70 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

up from the ground ; the eggs of oysters are laid and 
hatch in the water. 

Animals with a single sex nature. — When God made 
the fish, insects, lizards, snakes, birds and higher ani- 
mals, He gave to one a papa or male nature, with suit- 
able sexual organs; to another of the same kind He 
gave a mama or female nature, with suitable female 
or sexual organs. The sexual organs of all of the 
female animals produce eggs and the sexual organs 
of the male produce a fertilizing fluid called semen. 

Why fish spoon. — A number of fish in a group are 
called a "school." In the spring season of the year 
"schools" of some varieties of fish gather in deep 
water for the purpose of swimming against each other, 
over and around each other. Other varieties will swim 
at this season to the shallow riffles ; with tails and fins 
they make hollow places in the sand and in these hol- 
low places they swim over, under, around and against 
each other so fast that they remind one of pop-corn 
popping in a popper. They are spooning. Fish spoon 
to excite their sexual natures. This helps the female 
to form her eggs and the male to form the fertilizing 
fluid. 

How baby fish come into the world. — In the early 
spring thousands of tiny eggs are formed in the ovaries 
of the mother fish. When these eggs are ready to be 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 71 

laid great "schools" of mother fish of some varieties 
leave the deep water of a stream, river or sea for some 
shallow place where it suits them to lay their eggs. 
The mother fish lay their eggs in a thin substance, 
like the white of an egg, which spreads out in a very 
thin film, holding the little eggs, one in a place, and 
very close together. The father fish swim along, 
sometimes several feet or yards behind the mother 
fish, and drop from their bodies a fluid, called milt, 
containing many thousand sperm cells that unite with 
the eggs of the mother fish. In this way the father 
nature unites with the mother nature to produce every 
little fish that swims in ponds, streams, rivers, lakes 
or seas. 

There are certain varieties of fish that go to the 
deep water to lay and fertilize their eggs. A few 
varieties seem to pair off, a male and a female; the 
female with her fins and tail whips out a kind of nest 
in the sand and lays her eggs in it and the male fer- 
tilizes them. The mother fish then leaves and the 
father fish lingers around for a day or two to ward off 
other fish that might disturb the eggs. 

Why fish lay so many eggs.— The female fish form 
thousands of eggs in their bodies every year. The 
female cod fish have been known to lay as many as 
six to eight million eggs a year. If you should spend 



72 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

a long life time, ten hours a day, counting just as 
fast as you could, you could not count one-fourth as 
many as the female cod fish lays eggs in one season. 
You wonder why they lay so many. I will tell you. 
Not one egg in twenty ever hatches and not one little 
fish in twenty ever lives long enough to grow as long 
as your finger. They have little or no protection, 
and they have so many enemies. There are hogs, 
turtles, crocodiles and alligators; the ducks, geese and 
other water fowls; as well as most of the fish feed 
upon fish eggs and small fish. That the streams, rivers 
and seas may be kept with an abundance of fish, God 
has wisely planned for the mother fish to lay vast num- 
bers of eggs. 

Why fish do not love their young. — Nearly all kinds 
of fish leave their eggs as soon as they are laid and 
fertilized and never see or know their young. We 
noticed that there are a few varieties of game fish 
where the male lingers a day or so to protect the eggs. 
As soon as the eggs begin to hatch, he leaves. In 
this way all baby fish grow up orphans. They never 
know or enjoy the presence of their parents. Should 
some parent fish chance to meet their young, they 
would likely eat them. The parent fish do not labor 
to support and protect their young and they do not 
have to suffer to bring: their vouns; into the world. 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 73 

It is for these reasons that they have no love for their 
young. If they should meet their young, they would 
have no means of recognizing them or of enjoying 
their presence. 

Love's dawning. — We found in the plants that the 
seeds are fertilized while still in the ovary. In the 
fish we found that the eggs are fertilized outside 
the body. In nearly all of the animals above the fish 
the eggs or ova are fertilized while in the mother's 
body. There is no love between the male and female 
fish. They do not pair off and live in families. Among 
all the spiders, lizards, serpents, many of the insects, 
crawfish, frogs and toads, there is a tendency, at cer- 
tain seasons, for the male to choose a female mate with 
a view to a home and family. But among all the 
animals we have named, many of the parents part or 
leave each other as soon as the eggs are fertilized, 
and all the others do so as soon as the eggs are 
hatched. The love of parents for each other and for 
their young lasts but for a few days. Perhaps it would.. 
be . more correct to say that these parents have no 
love for their young and their interest ceases when the 
eggs hatch. Before the young are hatched, some of 
these animals show an intense interest in their eggs 
and make some provision for their young when they 
are hatched. The young all grow up without a parent's 
aid or care. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A Talk about Insects and Birds. 

A Review of other stories. — Among plants and fish, 
we found no love or personal feeling between the male 
and female. Among the insects and reptiles we found 
that the males choose their mates, when led by instinct 
to bring their young into the world. From the fish 
to the birds, we find the beginning of the simplest form 
of interest and love among animals. This is limited 
to the interest the parents take in the protection and 
care of the eggs and the food provided for the young 
before they are hatched. The male crawfish picks up 
the fertilized eggs with his feelers, that are arranged 
in a double row underneath his tail, and by means of 
these feelers, he carries the eggs close to his body until 
they are ready to hatch. The frogs and toads show 
great interest and tenderness for their eggs. A great 
many interesting books have been written about all of 
tfiese animals. When you are older, you will no doubt 
take pleasure in studying more carefully details of 
reproduction among these curious animals. 

The bee and the ant. — The bee and the ant differ 
from all the insects and animals we have studied and 
in some respects they differ from each other. They 

74 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 75 

do not pair off and mate, as do other insects, but they 
live in colonies, or societies. They do not seem to 
have any special interest in their offspring, or even 
in a mate, but in the whole community of bees or ants. 
The perfect social organizations they form, and the 
homes they build, rival the intelligence and skill of 
man. There are some very interesting books written 
about the bee and ant by persons who have spent 
years in studying them. Some of these books are 
written in very simple language, intended for chil- 
dren. They are as* interesting as fairy stories. Mama 
will buy one for you the first chance she has. 

The birds. — We will now study God's plan among 
the birds. In studying the family life of the birds we 
find a higher form of instinct, more love and care for 
each other and their young, than among the animals 
we have studied. 

We often feel disgusted at the ugly, slimy toads, 
lizards and snakes living in swamps and pools. But 
not so with the birds. Most of them are very inter- 
esting and beautiful, and some are fine musicians. In 
the spring time the male bird chooses from among 
the female birds one that suits his fancy and they are 
mated or married. 

Nest building. — When they decide to raise a 
family, they build a nest or home for their young. The 



76 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

partridge and lark build their nests on the ground; 
the swallows, in chimneys; the pigeons, in barns; the 
woodcocks and woodpeckers, in hollow limbs ; the 
wild ducks and geese, in the high grass and weeds 
along the edges of lakes and ponds; but nearly all 
birds build their nests in bushes and trees. The cuckoo 
does not build a nest, but lays her eggs in the nest 
of other birds, to get rid of all trouble and toil in 
hatching, feeding and rearing her young. We feel 
a natural contempt for the cuckoo. 

How little birds are brought into the world. — In 
every female bird there are organs called ovaries, where 
at certain seasons little eggs are formed. While small 
and soft they are fertilized by the male bird. As 
the eggs continue to grow in the mother bird's body 
a hard, thin shell is formed on the outside. The eggs 
of the different varieties of birds vary in size and 
color. Bird eggs are usually very pretty. When the 
eggs are fully formed in the mother bird's body, and 
the nest is ready, they are laid in the nest, usually one 
a day. For several days these eggs must have some 
extra heat, or they will not hatch. Among -most 
birds, the mother bird sits on her eggs so that the 
warmth of her body may cause the fertilized germ in 
the egg to take on active life and form the little bird. 
In this way the eggs are hatched and the little birdies 
come into the world. 



How to Tell the Stqby of Life; 77 

The husband and father bird. — While the mother 
bird sits on her eggs, the father bird gathers fresh 
worms and berries for the mother bird to cat. When 
net bringing her water or food, he is usually found 
perched upon a near-by limb, cheering his wife by sing- 
ing for her and talking to her. When her little legs 
become tired, he will take her place, while she flies 
off for exercise, rest, fresh water and food. The male 
bird is never untrue to his wife and she is never untrue 
to her husband. In this respect they .are good exam- 
ples for all married people. 

The training of their young birdies. — When the lit- 
tle birdies are hatched, from sunrise to sunset, the 
parents are busy catching insects and finding worms 
and feeding their young. As their children grow 
larger and older, in some mysterious way, they teach 
them the danger of boys with stones and men with 
guns, of cats and snakes. When they are about 
grown they are taught to fly. Usually the little birds 
obey their parents perfectly. They do not run away 
from home, get out on the street, or get into mis- 
chief. Sometimes you find a small bird that cannot 
fly on the ground and the parent birds are crying and 
show great distress about the little bird. The little 
bird left its nest, not because it was naughty and dis- 
obedient to its parents, but it was blown from its nest 



78 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

by the storm, or the sight of an approaching cat or 
snake caused it to leave home for safety. In this way, 
little birds set children fine examples. 

As soon as the little birds leave their nests, they live 
with their parents in flocks, and sometimes their neigh- 
bors join them and they live together until the follow- 
ing spring, when they will again mate and rear fam- 
ilies. In this way all of the beautiful feathery song- 
sters are brought into the world. Without the birds, 
this world would be devoid of much beauty and music. 



CHAPTER IX. 

A Talk about Animal and Human Babies. 

A comparison. — We shall at this time talk about 
God's plan of increase among the higher animals and 
man. We shall find that the first tvo great laws, 
that we found down among the plants, vegetables, flow- 
ers and trees, are still the principal laws that control 
the coming of the higher animals and man into the 
world. The two laws to which I refer are: Every 
little plant, animal and human being comes into this 
world from a seed or egg and must have a father and 
mother, and the father and mother natures must unite. 
These laws never vary. We have found that the 
male or sexual organs, called anthers among the plants 
and testes among the animals, produce a fertilizing 
substance called pollen in plants and semen in animals ; 
that the female organs of sex, the ovaries, produce 
little seeds in plants and eggs in animals. We have 
found that every new plant comes from the union of 
the pollen from the father organs with the seeds of the 
mother organs. We have also found that every baby 
oyster, fish, insect, lizard, frog and bird comes from 
the union of semen from the father organs of the male 

animals with the egg of the mother organs of the 

70 



80 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

female. This last fact is just as true of all animal 
and human babies. 

Eow the two natures are brought together. — We 

found that the pollen of the father parts of the plant 
united with the seeds of the mother part of the plant 
while in the ovary. We found that God uses three 
methods of bringing these two natures together, the 
wind, gravity and many kinds of insects, and we should 
have added some kinds of birds, such as the humming 
bird. In the oyster the little father vessels form a 
liquid substance, milky in color, containing hundreds 
of little cells, called sperm cells. The mother organs 
or ovaries form many eggs. When these eggs are ripe 
and burst through the membrane of the ovary, the 
father organs eject their fertilizing fluid that unites 
with the eggs as they leave the shell of the oyster. In 
the oyster we see that the father and mother natures 
unite in the water, not while the eggs are in the ovaries 
of the mother, as we found to be true in the plants. 
The .two natures were not brought together by the 
wind, gravity or insects. The two natures left the 
parent body about the same time, and united in the 
water. ' , 

The fish. — Coming to the fish, we found them to be 
single sexed animals; that is, they are either male or 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 81 

female." The mother fish forms Hundreds, thousands 
or millions of eggs in her ovaries. When ripe, these 
eggs are laid in an albuminous substance like the white 
of a hen's egg. The seminal sacs in the father fish 
form a liquid,, milky in color, containing many thou- 
sand little sperm cells. The father fish follows along 
behind the mother fish and drops this liquid upon the 
eggs. When one of those little sperm cells from the 
father unites with an egg, the egg is fertilized. In 
this way many of the eggs are fertilized. A few days 
later the eggs hatch and the little fish are perfectly at 
home in the water. Where a sperm cell from the 
father does not unite with an egg, that egg will decay. 
No little egg can produce a baby fish unless a sperm 
cell from the father unites with it. If there were no 
father fish, the mother fish would still lay hundreds, 
thousands and millions of eggs, but none of them 
would ever hatch, and there never could be any more 
little fish. Now you can understand why it is that 
every baby fish must have a father and mother. You 
can also understand why the sperm cell of the father 
must unite with the egg of the mother. . The fish is 
another example where the father and mother natures 
unite outr ; 1 f the mother's body. In all of these re- 
spects the frogs and toads very much resemble the rish. 
Nature is cautious.— Life, from the lowest to the 
highest forms, is a very interesting study. Nature 



82 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

recognizes that the higher forms of life are more 
valuable than the lower. In the lower orders of 
plants, such as the dandelion and thistle, more seeds 
are produced than among corn, wheat and oats. They 
are not very valuable or precious and nature can afford 
to lose many of their seed and have plenty left. Fish 
lay thousands or millions of eggs. You noticed that 
nature did not teach the male fish to be very cautious 
in fertilizing the eggs and he was found swimming sev- 
eral feet or yards behind the mother fish. Then, the 
fertilizing substance was carelessly dropped from his 
body over the eggs. Nature acts as if she could afford 
to loose nine out of ten of the fish eggs and still have 
plenty left. The mother toads and frogs lay hundreds 
of eggs, but not one-tenth as many as the fish. Among 
the frogs we find nature more cautious. The father 
frog follows the mother frog qnite closely, while she is 
laying her eggs. The mother toads and frogs are 
more cautious in the selection of a place in the stream 
or. pond for their eggs than are the fish. Again, the 
father frog shows a great deal more care in trying 
to fertilize them. ' 

Birds. — The birds represent a much higher form of 
life. I am sure that you will not be surprised if 
we find some striking and interesting differences among 
the birds from what we have studied among the 



How to Tell the Story oe Life! 83 

lower animals. Birds are far more valuable and pre- 
cious than plants, oysters, fish and toads. Bird eggs 
are far more valuable than fish and toad eggs. There 
are not very many of them. Nature will have to in- 
troduce some new methods of protecting them, or she 
will soon have no birds. 

In the spring, nature teaches the birds to pair off 
or mate. Each male bird chooses, according to his 
fancy, a female bird to become his wife, his companion 
and the mother of his children. When this is done 
they find them a suitable place for a home. For two 
or three days they are very busy building a nest or 
home for the eggs. When the nest is completed the 
mother bird lays three, five or six eggss in the nest. 
These eggs are covered with a hard, thin shell. Notice, 
nature protects these eggs by teaching the birds to 
build a nest for them and in seeing that they are not 
laid until a hard shell has been formed about them. 
After they are laid, nature does not leave them alone. 
Nature teaches the mother bird that she must stay 
with them, sit upon them and give the warmth of her 
body to them, that they may be protected and that all 
may hatch. When the little birds are hatched they 
are not left alone to grow up as orphans, as we found 
all of the young of the lower animals compelled to do. 
The parents stay with them, protecting, feeding and 



84 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

teaching them until they are able to look out for 
themselves. 

Nature's plan of fertilizing. — We have gotten way- 
ahead of ourselves in this story. We must go back 
and learn nature's plan of fertilizing the eggs of the 
bird. We have already learned that in the bodies 
of all mothers there are tiny ovaries or egg nests. 
Each mother fish, frog and bird has two of these 
ovaries or egg nests. From each of these ovaries 
there is a long tube that leads to an outer opening 
of the mother's body. When the eggs are fully formed 
they are sent through these ducts into the water, cell 
or nest. We call this process laying eggs. If these 
eggs are very valuable they remain several days in the 
ovaries of the mother and a hard, thin shell is formed 
around them, so they will be better protected after 
they are laid. If they are not specially valuable, 
they are in the ovaries only a short time before they 
are laid. If a bird's egg was laid with the large 
shell around it before it is fertilized, there Would be 
no way for a tiny, soft sperm cell to enter the shell and 
fertilize the egg. Then the egg would not hatch. 
Just as nature has taught the birds to build homes for 
the eggs, to sit upon them until they hatch and to pro- 
tect, feed and teach their young, so nature must pro- 
vide some way by which the male bird can fertilize the 



How to Tell, the Story of Life. 85 

eggs, while, yet soft and in the mother, bird's body. 
Nature teaches the male bird how to bring his body 
in contact with the body of the female so that the fer- 
tilizing substance will be forced through the ducts 
to the eggs in the mother's body. This process or act 
is called coition or copulation. Copulation among 
flies is so common that we hardly notice it. and it is 
a daily occurence in the poultry yard. 

If there were no mother birds in the world, there 
could be no bird eggs and there would be no more 
little birds come 'into the world. If there were no 
male birds in the world, the female birds would con- 
tinue to build nests in the spring, to lay and sit upon 
their eggs. But their eggs could not hatch and there 
would be no more little birds brought into the world. 
Now you can understand why every baby bird must 
have a father and mother and why their two natures 
must come together. Every little bird was once a 
part of its father and mother. 

The embryo. — The beginning life in a seed is called 
an embryo until the seed sprouts and then it is a baby 
plant. The beginning life in the egg of an insect, 
fish or bird is an embryo until the egg is hatched and 
then it is a baby insect, fish or bird. The embryo of 
a seed forms a very small part of a seed or egg. The 
bulk of a seed or egg consists of food stuff that has 



86 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

been stored up for the embryo to live on until the seed 
sprouts or the egg hatches. Twenty-four hours after 
a hen begins sitting on her eggs the little embryos 
in the eggs are not as large as the end of a lead pen- 
cil. The balance of an egg is stored up food for the 
embryo. 

Higher animals and man. — We now come to study 
the highest order of animal life and man. Here we 
will find that life is more precious and valuable than 
any form of life that we have studied. We will 
find nature all the more cautious now to protect every 
life before and after it comes into the w r orld. We 
will not be surprised if we find that God has intro- 
duced some new organs and methods in the higher 
form of life. We may expect to find some striking 
resemblances and some interesting differences to what 
we have studied. 

Mammals. — The word mammal is given to all of the 
higher animals and man because their young are fed 
on milk formed by the mammary glands or breasts 
of the mothers. Their young is so precious that a 
special food must be made for them by their mothers. 
To meet this demand, God has given to the females 
special glands called mammary glands or breasts. 
Cats, dogs, hogs, cattle, horses, many kinds of wild 
animals and the human family ' feed their young in 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 87 

this way. The oysters, fish, toads, insects and birds 
either do not feed their young at all or they have some 
other method. 

Sprouting and hatching.— The little embryo in a 
seed begins to form and grow after the seed is placed 
in a damp and warm place. When the embryo is 
old enough to leave the seed it is called a baby plant. 
We call this act sprouting, or germinating. Some 
kinds of seed sprout sooner than others. All seed will 
sprout sooner when the soil is damp and warm than 
when the soil is dry and cold. It requires from one 
to several days for the different kinds of seed to sprout. 

The embryo in the egg of the fish, insect or bird 
begins to form after the egg is laid and it receives the 
warmth that nature requires that kind of egg to have. 
When the embryo is old enough to leave the egg, it 
becomes a baby fish, insect or bird. We call this 
process hatching. The time required for the eggs of 
the different animals to hatch varies from one day to 
three or more weeks. 

Born, not hatched. — In the higher animals and man 
the young are born, not hatched. The young of fish, 
frogs and birds are hatched into the world after the 
eggs have been laid. We found that the eggs of all 
of the lower animals, after being laid, were more or 
less exposed to many dangers. We found that nature 



88 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

seemed careless about the protection of fish eggs be- 
cause there were so many of them. We noticed that 
nature was much more cautious to protect the eggs 
of birds, because birds are more precious than fish. 
But bird eggs are sometimes destroyed by cats and 
storms. Hogs, cattle, horses and human beings are 
much more valuable and precious than the birds. Na- 
ture would be considered very careless if the eggs 
from mother hogs, cattle, horses and human beings 
were placed for months in nothing more cozy, safe 
and warm than a bird's nest. They are too precious 
for that. Certainly God must have provided a better 
and safer place for them than we have thus far found. 

A nest in the mother's body. — You will remember 
what mama told you about the two ovaries in the body 
of a mother bird, how they are connected to an outer 
opening of the body with tubes, how the eggs were 
fertilized by the male bird while still soft, how they 
remain in these ducts to receive a hard shell before 
being laid. Life is now very precious. Among the 
birds, the embryo will require food for only a few days 
to three weeks before it is old enough to leave the shell 
and take care of itself. Plenty of food can be stored 
up in an egg to last the embryo of a bird that long. 
But now we come to the higher forms of animals and 
man, where their embryos must have food for from one 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 89 

month to more than a year before they are old enough 
to come into the world as babies. So we see that 
nature could not store up enough food in an egg for 
one of these embryos. Nature must provide some 
other way to feed these little embryos. 

Here we find a most wonderful arrangement. Na- 
ture has built in the bodies of all of the females a little 
cozy nest- or home for the embryo, called the womb. 
Connected with the womb are the two ovaries that 
form little eggs ; connected with the door of this little 
nest or womb is the tube we have already mentioned 
that leads to an outer opening of the mother's body. 
At certain times one or more eggs are formed by the 
ovaries and sent over to the womb. In the female 
hog from three to twelve eggs are formed at one time ; 
in the ewe, or female sheep, one and two eggs are 
formed at one time; in the cow, mare and woman 
usually there is but one egg formed at the time. The 
number of eggs formed • at one time will determine 
the number of young that would be born at one time, 
if the eggs were fertilized by the male. If the female 
animal has found no mate the eggs will not be fertil- 
ized and she cannot become a mother. This is why 
women do not become mothers until they have found 
a mate or become married. 

When an egg is formed by one of the ovaries and 
is sent over to the womb, if it is met by a sperm cell 



90 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

from the male it is fertilized: At once the little 
embryo starts to grow and is attached to the walls 
of the womb by a delicate membrane called the 
placenta. Gradually there forms a little cord con- 
taining blood vessels that is connected at one end with 
the placenta and at the other with the body of the 
embryo at a point called the navel. The navel on your 
body shows where you were once connected with 
mama's body. As long as the little embryo remains 
in the mother's body it will require air. water and 
food. These materials are furnished by the mother 
and sent into the body of the little embryo through 
the cord that connects the two together. 

Birth. — When the little embryo has been in this 
mother-nest as long as nature has planned for it to 
remain there, the little door of this nest will open and 
the strong muscles will contract and force tlie young 
life out of this nest into the outer world. This is 
what we call birth. This is always accompanied with 
suffering on the part of the mother. In the human 
mother the suffering is much greater than among the 
mother animals and usually lasts for several hours. 
This is why the human mother loves her children so 
much more and so much longer than do the mothers 
among the lower animals. 

How another mother told the story of life to her 
boy. — Mama will now tell you how another mother 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 91 

told her little boy of how he came into the world. 
This mama said : When my little boy was six years 
old, attending the public school, thrown daily with all 
classes of boys, I knew that he was constantly in 
danger of being told of his birth by ignorant and 
wicked boys in such a way as would do him much 
harm. Daily I was praying to God asking him to help 
me to see the best opportunity and way of telling my 
boy the story. One day the opportunity came. I 
saw my little boy playing with the pet cat in a rather 
rough manner. I said, "Son, don't handle the old ca\ so 
roughly; handle her gently and tenderly." His reply 
was, "Mama, why should I not play with her as I 
have always done?" "Son, mama can't make the rea- 
son plain to you now, but you obey mama and in about 
ten days mama will tell you a very beautiful and won- 
derful story that will make it all plain to you." Then 
he enquired, "Mama, why not tell me that story now?" 
I said, "Son, the story is to be a real true story and 
it will take about ten days more for all parts of the 
story to be finished." As those days glided by, with 
pride I observed the unusual tenderness, attention and 
kindness that he showed in playing with the cat. One 
morning he came running into my room all excited, 
perfectly elated and overflowing with joy and invited 
me out the back way to see what he had discovered. 
I anticipated the discovery, but I wanted him to have 



92 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

all the pleasure and honor. So I offered him my hand 
and agreed to go with him, if he would lead the way. 
Quickly he seized my hand and proudly did he lead the 
way. When we stepped from the back porch, turning, 
he pointed under the floor to his discovery. I turned 
around and beheld four as pretty kittens, playing about 
the mother and basking in the sunlight, as one ever saw. 
He bragged about having found them, called my atten- 
tion to their color and beauty and claimed two of them 
as his own. We sat down on a near-by rustic seat, close 
up, side by side, where, we could still see the kittens and 
continued to talk about them. At length, I said, "Son, 
do you remember the little talk we had several days ago 
when you were handling the old mother cat rather 
roughly, and mama asked you to be kind and gentle 
in handling her?" "Yes, mama, and you promised 
that you would tell me a beautiful story, a real story 
that would make it all plain to me. Say, mama, can't 
you tell me that story now?" "Yes, son, all parts of 
the story are now finished and mama will tell you one 
of the prettiest and sweetest stories that a mother ever 
told her little boy. When mama asked you to be kind 
to the old cat, those four little kittens were then in the 
old mother cat's body. That was why she appeared 
larger than she does now. Then the kittens were much 
smaller and much tenderer than they are now. If you 
had been rough with the old cat, you might have in- 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 93 

jured them so that they might have been born crippled, 
deformed or dead. When they were born, a day or 
so ago, their little eyes were so tender that the full 
light of the sun would have put out their sight, so 
they were born with their eyelids closed and glued 
together. The old mother cat knew how tender their 
eyes would be, so she went away back under the dark 
floor and gave them birth. As they grew older and 
their eyes rapidly grew stronger, the old cat brought 
them a little nearer and then a little nearer to the open- 
ing, admitting a little more and then a little more light, 
until they are now able to look up into the face of the 
sun as well as you can." 

By this time I saw that my boy was very anxious to 
ask me a question and I was just as eager for him to 
ask it. I believed that he was going to ask me the 
very question that God wanted him to ask, and the 
very question that my mother heart longed for him 
to ask. I paused and looked into his upturned face. 
As his deep, true blue eyes met mine, very naturally and 
seriously he asked, "Mama, was I once in your body, 
too?" "Yes, son, you first started to live in mama's 
body, in a little nest or home just under mama's heart. 
You started as a little Qgg. For two hundred and eighty 
long days, nine long months, nearly a whole year, 
you were growing in mama's bod)-. Mama knew that 
you were there and loved and prayed for you long be- 



94 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

fore she ever saw you. Mama had to be very careful 
not to meet with an accident lest you might be born 
deformed or dead. Mama had to be cautious about the 
food she ate, the air she breathed, the water she drank, 
the exercise she took and all she thought and did ; 
because you were connected with mama's body by 
means of a little cord filled with blood vessels, through 
which mama was supplying you with all the materials 
necessary to the growth r>f your body, mind and soul. 
In this way you were constantly being influenced by 
mama. Mama was anxious that you should have a 
healthy and perfect body and a sound mind, so that 
you might grow up to be a smart, great and useful 
man. If mama had been angry, untruthful or dis- 
honest during the months you were a part of her, you 
might have been born with an ugly disposition, 
tendency to steal or to be untruthful. Mama was very 
careful about her thoughts, language and what she did 
during the months that you were a part of her body. 

Mama knew about the day that you would leave 
your little home and come into this world. For hours 
mama suffered great pain. Our faithful doctor was 
present and did all he could to lessen mama's suffering. 
Papa stood at mama's side, held mama's hand in his, 
often stooped over and kissed mama's lips, cheeks and 
brow. As soon as you were born, the air rushed into 
your lungs and you cried, just as all little babies do 



How to Tell the Story of Life. 95 

when they are born alive. Mama heard your baby 
cry and it thrilled her with a joy known only to a 
mother when she realizes for the first time that her 
little baby has been born alive. But, son, when you 
were born and for many weeks and months you were 
tender, tiny and helpless. If mama had died and there 
had been no one present to have cared for you, you 
would soon have died too. God might have searched 
heaven over and he could not have found an angel up 
there that could have loved you as much or cared for 
you as well as mama could. In all this wide world no 
one could have been found who could have loved you 
as much or cared for you as well as mama could. 
Mama fed you at her breast, held you in her lap, 
fondled you in her arms and sung lullabies to you. 
When you were only a few weeks old some nights you 
would have the colic. All night long your little body 
would be racked with pain and mama would walk the 
floor with you, rub your little body and sing to you." 
By this time, said the mother, my boy had climbed 
upon the rustic seat, had thrown his arms about my 
neck, his lips were kissing my cheek, and tears were 
rolling clown his cheeks. Then he said, "Mama, I am 
glad you told me that story. It is the prettiest story 
you ever told me. Somehow it has caused me to love 
you better than I ever did before. Why, mama, I never 
knew before that for a long time I was a little part of 



DEC 22 1913 



96 How to Tell the Story of Life. 

yourself ; that you loved and prayed for me a long time 
before you ever saw me ; that you were so careful that 
I might be well-born ; that you had to suffer so much 
when I was born; and that you loved and cared for 
me so good when I was tiny and sick. I am mighty 
glad you told the story. I can love you better now and 
I will try never to disobey or tell you a falsehood." 

"My son, this is the story of your birth. You cannot 
understand now how much your mama suffered when 
you were born. This is why mama loves you so much. 
Then your papa loved you and prayed for you too and 
he has toiled to make money with which to clothe, feed, 
educate and furnish you with a pleasant home. These 
are some of the reasons why papa and mama love you 
now, and take so much interest in your future. If you 
should go wrong I am sure our old days would be 
spent in grief. If you will keep your thoughts, words 
and habits pure and manly, every time we see or think 
of you we will be thrilled with pleasure and joy. Will 
you not now promise yourself, God and mama, that you 
will make a manly effort to keep pure? If you .vill, 
papa and mama will be repaid many times for all their 
sacrifice for you." 



CATALOG 



OF THE 



SHANNON BOOKS 

Sex Hygiene, Personal and Social 
Purity, Eugenics 




TITLES: 

PERFECT MANHOOD PERFECT WOMANHOOD 

PERFECT BOYHOOD PERFECT GIRLHOOD 

GUIDE TO SEX INSTRUCTION 

HEREDITY EXPLAINED 

STORY OF LIFE 

SPOONING 



THE S. A. 

Official Publishers 



MULLIKIN COMPANY 

: : : MARIETTA, OHIO 




PERFECT 
WOMANHOOD 

A book for every young 
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PERFECT BOYHOOD 

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mation he should have and he will get 
it in the right way. 

Bound in paper, 20c; clotn, postpaid, 40c 




PERFECT GIRLHOOD 

For Every Girl From Ten to Fifteen Years 

of Age. Contains What Girls Ought to 

Know and No More. A Companion 

Volume to Perfect Boyhood. 

This book was taken from the first 
division of Perfect Womanhood. Few 
young women have ever received this 
information in the right way, and they 
should form their ideals of child-training before they are mar- 
ried. It is published in this convenient form for the reason that 
Perfect Womanhood is too advanced for a small girl. Where the 
girl is four, six or eight years old, the mother can use the book 
in telling her daughter the story of life. When she is eleven or 
twelve, the book can be placed safely in her hand to read. 

Many mothers do . not realize the social dangers to which 
small girls are exposed. It is wiser to place Perfect Girlhood in 
the hand of a twelve-year-old girl than to wait and give her 
Perfect Womanhood when she is sixteen. 

Bound in paper, 20c; cloth, postpaid, 40c 



HOW TO TELL THE STORY 
OF LIFE 

Recently Revised, Greatly Enlarged and Illustra- 
ted — Simple, Practical, Charming 

The book contains the following chapters : "The Right of a 
Child to a Knowledge of Sex," "The Old Way and the Results," 
"Who Should Give This Knowledge?" "When and What Knowl- 
edge Should be Given?" "How Should this Knowledge be 
Given?" "A Talk About Baby Plants," "A Talk About Baby 
Oysters and Fish," "A Talk About Baby Insects and Birds," 
"A Talk About Animal and Human Babies." This book does 
not censure parents for not giving their children 'the instruction 
they should, but tells parents and teachers how to perform this 
duty. The author not only told these stories to his own children, 
but he has told them to many hundred audiences. He has not 
only learned how to tell them, but he has learned how to teach 
others to tell them. 

This valuable little book is uniform in size and style with 
Perfect Boyhood and Perfect Girlhood, and sells at same low 
price. 

Postpaid, paper, 20c; clotn, 40c 



SPOONING 

NEW— NOTHING LIKE IT— JUST FROM 
THE PRESS 

What is spooning? Has it a function in the economy of 
nature? If so, what is that function? Do the opposite sex 
among the lower animals spoon? If so, when and why? Has 
it a function in human society? If so, does it belong to single 
or married life? What is the relation of spooning to our social 
problems? Is it a natural expression of love between lovers? 
Has it any relation to sex? In a strictly scientific and ethical 
manner these questions are frankly and fully discussed. Millions 
of people, single and married, will want to read it. Aside from 
a natural curiosity, there will be a sincere and intelligent interest 
in the author's views on this social problem. The original and 
startling revelations in this book will hold the reader spellbound 
from start to finish. Order a copy at once, read it, then you will 
want more of them for your neighbors. 

Paper binding, postpaid to any address, only 15c 




GUIDE TO SEX 
INSTRUCTION 

Vital Facts of Life For All 

Ages. A Priceless Book 

For Every Home. 



EVERY FATHER AND MOTHER, 
EVERY MATURED MAN AND 
WOMAN, EVERY TEACHER AND 
MINISTER, SHOULD HAVE THIS 
GREAT BOOK. 



This book is a complete and comprehensive gtrde for parents, 
showing them how to tell the story of life to a child, for parents 
and teachers, showing them how to give timely instruction, advice 
and warning to boys and girls at the ages of greatest suscepti- 
bility and danger. It contains vital information for young men 
and women during the latter years of adolescence, and for ma- 
tured men and women, married or single. 

The best way of imparting personal purity and sex instruction 
to children, to youths and to young people, has been a most 
difficult problem. The author was for nine years a teacher of 
biology, has made a life study on social problems, has lectured 
to thousands of audiences, mixed and segregated, on every topic 
contained in this book. Scholars marvel at his scientific accuracy, 
while the masses appreciate his childlike simplicity. The first 
aim and guiding purpose of the author in writing this book has 
been to use plain words and to give easily understood directions 
to parents and teachers. 



The contents of this book are shown on opposite page. 



CONTENTS OF 

Guide To Sex Instruction 



-or- 



How To Teach Personal Purity 



FIVE BOOKS IN ONE VOLUME— EACH A 
PRICELESS GEM 



Book 1 — Childhood 



The Right of a Child to the 

Knowledge of Sex. 
First Story — Baby Plants. 
Second Story — Baby Oysters 

and Fish. 

Book 2— Boyhood 

A Talk to Fathers. 

Father's First Talk — Boys 
Make Men. 

Father's Second Talk — Perfect 
Boys Make Perfect Men. 

Father's Third Talk — Imper- 
fect Boys Become Imperfect 
Men. 

Father's Fourth Talk — How to 
Live a Pure Life. 



Book 4 
Young Manhood 

The Deeper Significance of 
Sex. 

Continence. 

Prostitution. 

Venereal Diseases. 

A Young Man's Ethics. 

Manhood Wrecked and Re- 
gained. 

Practical Questions Answered. 



Third Story — Baby Birds. 
Fourth Story — Baby Animals 

and Man. 
Practical Questions Answered. 

Book 3— Girlhood 

A Talk to Mothers. 

Mother's First Talk— The Fe- 
male Form. 

Mother's Second Talk — Dawn- 
ing of Womanhood. 

Mother's Third Talk — Choos- 
ing a Chum. 

Mother's Fourth Talk — Confi- 
dential Advice. 

Mother's Fifth Talk— A Small 
Girl's Ethics. 

Book 5 
Young Womanhood 

The Real Significance of Sex. 

The Vicious Novel. 

The Public Dance. 

A Young Woman's Ethics. 

The Miracle of Motherhood. 

Practical Questions Answered. 



This book contains many beautiful Water Color Illustrations 
and Half Tones, and has 270 pages of matter. The five volumes. 
bound singly, sell at $2.45. All bound in this one large and 
beautiful volume, in fine Vellum Deluxe cloth, postpaid, $1.25. 




HEREDITY 

EXPLAINED 

Every Child Has An Incon- 
trovertible Right to Be 
Well-Born 



NO ONE HAS A MORAL RIGHT TO 
FOREDOOM HIS UNBORN CHILD TO 
A LIFE OF UNDEVELOPMENT ON 
THE EARTH PLANE, BEFORE IT 
SEES THE LIGHT OF DAY. 



Forests are Protected, Swine are Inspected 
and Children are Neglected 



Heredity and environment are the agencies used by intelli- 
gent men in developing and perfecting vegetables, fruits and 
domestic animals. Heredity, environment and the grace of God 
are the three agencies to be used in man's development. 

More interest has been taken in the study of heredity and the 
application of its principles during the past five years than 
during the previous ninety-five years. 

This book should be read by all marriageable and young 
married people. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Chapter. 


Chapter. 


1. Heredity, a Fact. 


6. Delinquencies, Causes and 


2. Heredity Explained. 


Cures. 


3. Choosing a Companion. 


7. Birth Marks. 


4. Physical, Mental and Moral 


8. Heredity, Environment and 


Preparation for Parent- 


Redemption. 


hood. 


9. Courtship, Marriage and 


5. Prenatal Training. 


Divorce. 



Price, postpaid, fine clotK, only 75c; bound in paper, postpaid, 30c 

THE S. A. MULLIKIN COMPANY 

Official Publishers :: :: MARIETTA OHIO 



